Paper Mario: The Radiant Medals
by Vivalahomestar
Summary: An unknown threat has destroyed Toad Town and sent Mario and co. flying. Now Mario must travel a strange and exciting land with the help of some new allies in order to save his friends, collect a set of mysterious artifacts, and return home, all while attempting to discover this new threat before it rips the sky to shreds and brings everyone's game to an end.
1. Intro

**Author's Note: So I'm sure some of you will notice that this is a story I posted part of already. Well, there are quite a few minor details that needed changing and the backstory needed some reworking, so I decided I might as well rework what I had so it can be better written. You probably won't see any major changes beyond some location names and a character or two, but I certainly aim to make the writing even better this time around. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><em>Ahem, today<em>

_I'm here to tell you the tale of the Radiant Medals._

_Perhaps these magical objects are unknown to you._

_They exist to us only in flickering rumors,_

_claiming the artifacts are as old as the Stars themselves_

_and contain unparalleled power._

_Perhaps it's better if these things stay among the legends_

_for today's tale shows the desperate times_

_that these artifacts arise in._

* * *

><p>Mario heard a shrill cry echo down the pipe as he zoomed towards Toad Town. He gracefully shot out of the pipe, flipped, and landed right in front of his green-clad twin. "What's wrong, Weegee?"<p>

Luigi made a shaky gesture towards the broad avenue stretching ahead of the brothers. "S-see for yourself!" he whimpered.

Mario scanned the town ahead. What was normally a bustling street filled to the brim with Toads of all size and color conducting every kind of business was now empty and still. "Mama-mia," breathed Mario.

Luigi's breaths grew quick and shallow. "Oh no, there's only one reason this would happen Mario!"

Mario put a stern hand on his brother's shoulder. "Let's not panic, okay bro?" He moved into the street, his footsteps echoing from building to building. "You have a point, Peach could have been kidnapped, but let's not panic."

"G-got it," said Luigi with a nod. He slowly followed behind Mario as the two carefully made their way down Toad Town's main street towards the castle. The bros made occasional glances into the dark alleyways hidden from the morning sun. Yet they saw no baddies and they didn't see a single Toad.

"Strange," muttered Mario, attempting to hide his budding nerves.

As they passed through the gate to the castle yard and away from the eerie, empty streets, Luigi began to sigh in relief, but the sigh quickly turned into a frightened gasp as he looked up. Peach's castle loomed creepily in front of them. Not a single light seemed to be coming from within the walls. The castle looked almost hollow.

Mario hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth and running across the green castle lawn. "Come on, Weegee! We gotta get to the bottom of this!" he declared. Luigi quickly ran after him, terrified of being left behind.

* * *

><p>The castle's front doors slowly creaked open, letting a small bit of light seep into the dark front hall. Mario and Luigi crept through the door and let it slide closed behind them. They inched down the hall, sticking close together. As they approached the shadowy foyer, Luigi hissed "I see something!"<p>

Mario had also seen the mass of figures gathered in the room. He tensed, preparing for battle. "Alright Weegee, get ready," he ordered. "3... 2... 1..."

"Let'sa go!" the bros cried jumping into the center of the room and striking battle poses. The lights suddenly flipped on, revealing an unexpected crowd of people.

"Happy birthday Mario Bros!" shouted the denizens of Toad Town.

Luigi slowly removed his hands from his face. "Huh?"

Mario glanced around wildly, his hand still balled up into a fist. "Princess?" he called.

The Mushroom Kingdom's princess stepped out from the crowd, a wide grin spread across her face. "Oh I got you good didn't I, Mario?" she laughed, embracing the plumber tightly.

"I'll say," moaned Luigi. He was still shaking a bit.

"Lighten up, Lu!" chortled a voice from directly behind the lanky twin. Luigi unleashed a high pitched scream as he whirled around to face the voice. Princess Daisy laughed, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder.

Everyone waited in an awkward silence as the brothers caught their breaths before a guttural voice called, "What's the hold up? I'ma ready to party!"

"Hehe yeah!" added a nasally voice near him.

Mario and Luigi cast the Wario Bros exasperated glances for a moment before Mario spoke up. "I don't really see why you invited those two, but for once I agree with them. Let'sa party!" he shouted. The entire crowd erupted into cheers and loud music began playing.

Peach immediately grabbed Mario by the hand and led him through the crowd, stopping every few feet to say "Hi!" to one of the many distinguished guests.

When they made it to the top of the foyer's grand staircase, Mario stopped and turned to Peach. "Princess, this is absolutely amazing!" he said, giving her a respectful bow.

Peach giggled quietly. "Oh Mario, you know you've earned this!" she said. "Buuuut," her tone grew a bit uncomfortable. "I see Luigi with a few of our friends down there," she said, pointing to a landing down to their right. "Why don't you go say hello?"

Mario looked at her confusedly, but nodded. "Alrighty Princess!" Peach gave him a quick smile and dashed into the door behind them. Mario raised an eyebrow, but didn't follow. He approached the railing and looked down to the landing below. He spotted Luigi, Toad, Yoshi, and Rosalina. Without hesitation he vaulted over the railing, landing right next to Luigi.

"Eek! Hey bro!" said Luigi, jumping slightly.

"Happy biwthday!" cried Yoshi before anyone else got the chance.

"Yeah, happy birthday, dude!" chirped Toad. Rosalina simply gave him a polite nod and friendly grin, not moving from her seated position floating a few feet off the ground.

"Rosalina was just telling us about what she saw in the Koopa Kingdom this morning," explained Luigi, looking back expectantly.

Rosalina quietly cleared her throat before continuing. "I was taking a look down at their capital as we passed by in orbit and I saw quite a few police sirens flashing around the city. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that they were cracking down on some citizens who decided to throw parties for your birthday."

Mario chuckled loudly at this. "You're kidding!"

"I guess somebody appweciates what you two do to save the wowld!" said Yoshi.

Mario continued laughing. "Oh I'm gonna love rubbing that in Bowser's face next time I see him!" He slapped his knees after that, imagining the Koopa King's reaction.

* * *

><p>The party continued for hours. There was dancing, snacks, and party games, all going on to the beat of Rosalina's best Luma DJ, yet there was very little to organization to the event. It was simply a large group of people having a good time in celebration of their heroes and the Mario Bros loved it. The brothers had mostly stayed on the same landing for duration of the party, chatting with their friends. After a while, Daisy came up and grabbed a reluctant Luigi to go dance. Meanwhile, Mario seemed to be growing anxious as time went on.<p>

Finally, Toad caught on to Mario's stress. "Dude, you seem uneasy. What's up?"

"Have you seen Peach around?" asked the plumber. "I haven't seen her since we showed up." He grabbed his hat and wrung it in his hands.

"She's probably back in the halls or whatever," replied the captain casually. "I'm sure she's just making sure everything's going smoothly."

"Thanks Toad!" Mario said quickly, dashing off the landing and back up the main set of stairs.

Toad made a mocking heart shape with his hands as the plumber dashed into the second floor door. "Ah young love," he snickered.

Yoshi cocked his head in confusion. "What awe you talking about?"

"Just the local gossip," said Toad with a shrug. "He sure seems head-over-heels anyways."

* * *

><p>Mario plodded through the red-carpeted web of hallways in the back of Peach's castle for a few minutes- which felt much longer to him- until he came to a small wooden door guarded by a young Toad girl with pink pigtails.<p>

"Hey Toadette," Mario said with a pleasant wave. "Do you know where Peach is?"

"Hey Mario, happy birthday!" she said, appearing slightly on edge. Mario eyed her suspiciously. There was no way that she had simply been too distracted by wishing him happy birthday to mention Peach; this was the fifth time that day she had wished him happy birthday.

"Thanks again, Toadette. Do you know where Peach is?" he asked again.

"I don't know!" Toadette immediately cried. "Certainly not behind this door! No sir, no how!" she defended, spreading her arms to block the door.

"Toadette," began Mario angrily.

"Nope!" she squealed, grabbing Mario by the arm and dragging him down the hall. "I'm sorry Mario, you'll have to wait a bit!" she said sternly, crushing his gloved hand in a vice-like grip. Once she got to the door to the foyer she promptly threw him on the ground.

"Ow," groaned the birthday boy.

"Just a moment, please," she said pleasantly. She gave a small curtsey and quickly scurried back into the hall.

Toad, Yoshi, and Luigi had regrouped at the top of the stairs and each gave Mario an alarmed look as he was tossed to the ground. Toad began to laugh after a moment. "Wow, you let Toadette throw you? Jeez, you are getting old!"

Mario glared at him as he stood up. "Shut up, I'm not old!" he snapped, his back cracking.

"Yet Toadette was able to throw you to the ground," argued Luigi, grinning.

"You do realize you're just as old as me, right?" snapped Mario.

Luigi's grin fell. "Right."

"I wondew why she wouldn't let you see the pwincess," said Yoshi, motioning everyone to follow him to the dance floor. Clearly he didn't feel the need to find out at that exact moment.

"Awesome surprises, I hope!" cheered Toad, running down to catch up with the dinosaur.

* * *

><p>About ten minutes later, the grand doors at the top of the stairs parted and Princess Peach slowly walked out and signaled the Luma DJ to stop the music. With a grand record scratch, the party came to a halt and all eyes were on Princess Peach. "I'm sure everyone here is as grateful as I am for our heroic Mario Brothers!" The crowd erupted in wild affirming cheers for a moment and Peach calmly waited for the noise to die down. "A tradition has developed here that every time these two save the day, they earn a cake. But I think that perhaps they deserve a freebie today." She stepped out of the way of the doors and dramatically cried "behold!"<p>

An absolutely massive cake was wheeled out of the hallway and gently taken down the stairs. The sweet-toothed bros could only look on in awe as a white pastry twice their height was wheeled down towards them. As it came down they saw candy statues of themselves standing atop the cake, holding the number 29.

"It's beautiful," breathed Luigi, his eyes shimmering in the glory of the birthday present.

But before anyone could make a move and serve the culinary wonder, the entire building began to shake and a hole was smashed in the roof. A massive beast resembling a cross between a dragon, turtle, and an ox dove in through the hole, landing right on the cake.

"Noooooooooo!" screamed Luigi, falling to his knees. "The cake! Why the cake?"

"Bwahaha! Happy birthday Stupid Mario Bros!" cackled Bowser, spitting a fireball into the air for good measure.

Mario stomped his foot on the ground angrily. "What are you doing here Bowser?" he growled.

"I'm here to give you a birthday present!" replied the Koopa King, putting on a mocking sweet tone. "You wanna know what it is?" Mario simply glared at him, clenching his fists. "I'm gonna kidnap Princess Peach!" he roared, cackling wildly.

"How did you know it was our birthday?" asked Mario, feigning ignorance. "Is it because of all your citizens throwing parties?"

Bowser's eyes widened in shock. "How did you-?" he gasped. He shook his head angrily, spitting fire around him. "Ooh you're gonna pay for bringing that up!" he snarled, trying to hide his embarassment. "I guess I'll have to give you another birthday present: a clobberin'!"

"You couldn't beat us!" shouted Mario, raising a fist.

"And you definitely won't take the princess!" added Luigi, hiding his panic.

Toad and Toadette stepped forward. "We'll protect the princess too!" called Toadette.

"And you'll be feeling the pain!" added Toad.

"Bowsew, you choose the wwong day to attack!" said Yoshi, punching the air enthusiastically.

Bowser began to notice the growing opposition and stepped back slightly. "What do you punks think you're doing?" he snapped.

"Stopping a brute," replied Rosalina sternly. She waved her wand, summoning her Luma entourage to her side.

"You'll pay for ruining our party!" barked Daisy, rolling up her sleeves and cracking her knuckles.

"Grah! It's seven to one now!" groaned Bowser. "Fight me one-v-one!" he commanded.

"Eh, might as well make it nine to one," said Wario with a shrug. "I'm in the mood for a good fight, plus you wrecked a perfectly good cake!"

"Yeah," cackled Waluigi. "Get ready Bowser, it's Waluigi Time!"

Everyone in the brawl tensed up, ready to strike when Peach suddenly cried out in terror. Everyone turned towards her in confusion.

"Yo, I haven't done anything yet. Why are you freaked?" Bowser asked, scratching his head. Peach shakily pointed up at the hole in the ceiling. Everyone looked through the rather large hole left by the (rather large) Koopa King. A noticeable chunk of the sky above seemed to be rippling oddly.

"What in the-," began Mario, but before he could finish, an unearthly ripping sound blared across the land and the rippling portion of sky tore open, sending a wave of mysterious energy flying towards the castle. The wave quickly made impact with Toad Town, tearing the ground to shreds with an explosive force that blew up the castle, sending many party-goers flying at alarming rates.

Before Mario could even comprehend what was going on, he blacked out, flying to parts unknown.


	2. Road to San Hongo Part 1

The first thing Mario felt was a comfortable mixture of 4 sensations, the soft feeling of grass under his body, the calming warmth of the sun on his face, the tickle of a cool breeze on his face, and an overall sleepiness (though that last one may have been caused by a concussion). He wanted to lie there forever in peace. However, he at least wanted to get a glimpse of where he was.

Peaceful blue sky met Mario's eyes. He thought it looked quite lovely. Though there was a strange, unmoving cloud that seemed to flash wild shades of blue and green. And it was shaped very strangely too, less like a cloud and more like a rip.

Mario quickly sat up. "Mama-mia!" he screamed, his voice echoing across the land and into the distant mountains. He was quickly overcome with panic as memories of the tear flooded back to him. "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" he gasped.

He tried his best to calm himself down. "Alright Mario, let's just camly think this through. What happened?" he said to himself. "Well there was a party, and a cake, a fantastic cake, and then Bowser attacked, and then BOOM!"

Could Bowser have done this? He dismissed the thought quickly. Bowser didn't want to destroy anything, just kidnap Peach.

Peach.

Was she okay? Where was she? Mario answered the first question, figuring she was okay if he was. Hopefully. So now he just needed to figure out where she was.

Wait a moment.

On second thought he also needed to figure out where _he_ was. He glanced around. He was in a grassy field with a small brook, shining train tracks, a small forest, and-

"Train tracks!" cheered Mario. "Tracks gotta lead to somewhere, right?" he muttered to himself. He hopped to his feet, groaning as his back popped loudly. He ran to the top of a small hill near the tracks and scanned the horizon. He saw nothing but plains to the south, but to the north, passed the forest, he saw the faint skyline of a city about 20 miles away. It didn't look like Toad Town, but it was something! Mario grinned to himself as the slid down the hill and followed the tracks into the forest. His adventure had begun.

**Prologue: Road to San Hongo**

Mario entered the forest and quickly took in his surroundings. It wasn't a creepy forest by any standards. The trees weren't very dense so a lot of light still filtered through the canopy overhead to dapple the dirt ground. There was a fair amount of underbrush, but it had been almost completely cleared everywhere within five feet of the tracks, giving him a nice area to walk.

Mario walked peacefully for a few minutes, enjoying the warm sun as he hummed a light tune to himself. Perhaps he could make this all a simple journey. He'd pick up his friends and get back to Toad Town with little trouble.

"Yeah, no," he sighed as he heard a growl come from the nearby bushes. Two Goombas and a Paragoomba scurried out and eyed him angrily. One of the Goombas dashed at him which he responded to with two swift jumps, defeating it. He rolled out of the way of the next one's attack and jumped up to give the Paragoomba a swift kick. When the Goomba tried to hit him once again, he bounced off it twice, leaving him with the Paragoomba. He was about to finish off the last baddie when it unexpectedly dove and rammed into his stomach, shoving him backwards.

"I forgot how annoying you guys are," he groaned, jumping on it one last time. He looked at the defeated enemies and let out a sigh as he dusted off his overalls. As he plodded on he kept his eyes narrowed, now forced to look suspiciously at what he thought was a peaceful path. He continued like this for another five miles, having to deal with the occasional baddie. By that point he was panting and his shoulders were sagging, but he still trudged on.

Up ahead, Mario could see the forest abruptly stop at a river that was 30 feet across. A large, black steel drawbridge sat upright at the end of the path. Mario sighed deeply. End of the line. As soon as he got near the water, it was clear that it was moving too fast for him to swim through.

Glancing around, Mario caught sight of a signpost planted recently in the dirt. It was made of black metal and was bordered with black and yellow industrial stripes. Mario read the white text printed on the middle of the sign:

_New Drawbridge!_

_Train stations send automatic signals to our high-tech engineering marvel,_

_so no operator will be present. If you need to lower the bridge manually,_

_hit the button located on the back of this sign and the bridge will lower _

_for two minutes._

Mario grinned and stepped around to the back of the sign, where there was a large, red button. Mario smacked it with his fist, but it didn't budge. Wincing and holding his sore hand, Mario instead gave it a swift kick, which still didn't do anything. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Mario jumped back and charged at the button with his shoulder. He slammed into it and crashed to the ground, doing nothing to the button. Mario rolled onto his back with a groan. Looking up, he noticed a piece of paper taped to the front of the post. Mario quickly ripped it down and read it:

**Missing Travel Pack**

**If found, please return to Jim Toadsteel at construction site.**

**If construction is finished, don't bother. I've probably already gotten a new one.**

**Likely lost in the brush ahead of this sign.**

"Sounds useful," commented Mario, pocketing the note. He rolled out from under the sign and hopped to his feet happily. At least he had something else to go after. Maybe it had a control switch for the bridge. That was probably too hopeful, but Mario tried to stay bright on the matter. He wouldn't be bested by a mere bridge.

Mario made his way into the underbrush, which had flourished into a complete entanglement due to the river's humidity. After being pricked by the tenth thorn bush, Mario began to question his decision to look for the bag. He pushed through another set of bushes and came upon yet another Goomba, this one brandishing a spiked cap.

"I was wondering when I'd see one of you guys," Mario said, almost chuckling to himself. His hands took on the familiar hammer-wielding position and he prepared to swing. The spiked Goomba gave him an amused look. "What are you laughing at?" Mario snapped. He looked up to his hands, realizing with horror that he didn't have a hammer. He was helpless. "Mama-mia!" he yelled. The spiked Goomba, well aware of his weakness, began to run at full speed towards the plumber. Mario, left with no other option, ran for his life. He ran through every unpleasant patch of brush, getting scratches all over, and the spiked Goomba seemed to have no problem keeping up. After over a minute of fleeing, Mario's foot caught on something, sending him plummeting into a bush.

Mario shook his head dazedly and looked back at what had tripped him. It appeared to be a leather strap, sticking out of a bush. Mario gave a hopeful grin and grabbed at the object. "The travel pack!" he cried happily. His happiness what short-lived, however, because the spiked Goomba plowed its way through the bushes and stood menacingly over him. Mario shoved his hand into the travel pack, hoping he could find something to save his life. His hand clenched around a familiar object, causing a wicked smile to spread across his face.

_Mario got a wooden hammer! He can now destroy certain blocks and strike wall-bound or spiked objects!_

Mario whipped out the hammer and struck the foe in the face, defeating it before it could even know what was going on. Relieved, Mario searched the bag for anything else that would be useful. He found three mushrooms and chomped down on one, reinvigorating the hero.

Satisfied with the recovery, he put on the travel pack and strapped the hammer to the outside of the pack for quick use. He scanned the area around him, having become disoriented in the chase. He saw the looming figure of the bridge and picked his way back through the brush over to the sign. Putting all of his strength into it, he swung the wooden mallet at the button, finally pressing it with a satisfying _chunk_!

The large bridge slowly descended towards the other side of the river, creaking loudly as it did. When it finally landed with a thud, Mario scurried across, chirping "Wahoo!" and walked into the next section of the forest.

Between fighting off the three kinds of Goombas he had encountered, Mario's mind began to wander. He was very alone. Well, not entirely, a fact he was rudely reminded of every few minutes. But the fact remained that he had landed where he did, wherever that was, yet there was no sign of anyone else from the castle. Where could they be? He didn't know, but he was willing to bet that he wasn't the only one that was flung far from home.

He plodded along for another few miles. Being left to his thoughts was slowly driving him crazy. "How much longer?" he finally shouted, unleashing a day of frustration and fear into his voice. Yet he got no response, no comfort. All he had done was manage to provoke some unseen foe in the bushes.

Two strange Goombas shot out of the bushes. One was a distinct sunburn red and the other was an electric shade of indigo. "What are these Goombas?" Mario gasped, pulling out his hammer and bending his knees. The red Goomba suddenly engulfed itself in a vibrant covering of flames and jumped at the plumber. "Mama-mia!" he shrieked, narrowly jumping out of the way. The indigo Goomba quickly followed up by surrounding itself with a field of electricity and rolling at Mario. The plumber jumped over the Goomba, but it quickly got rid of the field and lunged at him with its fangs.

"Watch out!" called a deep, confident voice. A Goomba suddenly hopped out of the bushes and headbonked the indigo foe. This newcomer wasn't a standard-issue Goomba, though. He had short, black hair with hints of gray that was neatly styled with hair gel and wore a khaki vest, tan cargo pants, and black combat boots. "Stay sharp, kid! You're messing with a _Mossy Goomba_ and a _Pop Goomba!_ Have you fought these guys before?"

Mario shook his head wildly. Dodging another lunge by the indigo Goomba. The newcomer Goomba chuckled. "You sure look like it! That blue one's a Mossy Goomba. It has 3 HP, 1 Attack, and 0 Defense. It can surround itself with electricity to stun you, shocking, I know!" He chuckled at his own joke before promptly giving the Mossy Goomba a second hit. "The red one's a Pop Goomba. It has the same stats as a Mossy Goomba, but it attacks with fire. I hope you brought aloe!"

He bounced on the Pop Goomba twice. In a panic, the foe set itself on fire, causing the newcomer to jump backward. "You see, that's the problem with these grunts, they surround themselves with fire or thunder and you're left not being able to do anything. It's pretty tedious."

"I might have a way to finish these guys off faster," replied Mario, snatching his hammer from the travel pack. He slammed it down on the head of the Pop Goomba, finishing it off.

"How resourceful!" commended the mysterious Goomba. He jumped onto the Mossy Goomba while it was distracted by its comrade's defeat, taking it out. "You seem to have a bit of experience on you!"

"A bit," Mario said humbly. "You too. Thanks for the info."

"Ah, no need to thank me, kid. Helping's what I do!" replied the newcomer. "So what brings you to little ol' _Railway Wood, _pal?"

"It's," Mario paused a bit, holding his temples. "It's a bit of a long story."

"I've heard plenty of long stories, another one won't kill me," the Goomba replied with a smile.

So for the next minute or so, Mario explained the events of that morning, mainly focusing on the ripping of the sky.

"Jeez, if I'd lived a less exciting life I wouldn't believe you," admitted the Goomba. "Though I s'pose I can't argue with that crazy rip in the sky. That's rough, er... what's your name, kid?"

Mario gave him a thumbs up, chanting "It'sa me-a Mario!"

"Nice to meet you, Mario!" replied the Goomba. He quietly muttered "Where have I heard that name before?" to himself, but decided not to pursue the issue. "The name's Goombalan." He stepped forward, offering his nonexistent hand for a handshake.

Mario shook his "hand", saying "Nice to meet you." He paused awkwardly for a moment before saying "So, what's your story?"

"I used to be a big-time adventurer," he began. Mario could sense a monologue coming. "Years ago, I traveled all around the country, fighting off all things evil. My life was once one of action, adventure, mystery, and romance, but that was before." His gaze fell to the dirt and he let out a sigh.

"What happened?" asked Mario, becoming engrossed in the adventurer's story.

"I aged. I'm 42 now and adventuring is harder when you're in your 40s. I'm not as limber as I used to be, so the travel is harder. Plus I've settled down. Sure I have the woman of my dreams and a great son, but it means I can't risk as much."

As Goombalan spoke, Mario couldn't help but be fearful. He would be 30 in a year. How long did he have left before he had to settle down? "That's interesting," he said, trying to suppress a shudder.

"You think so?"

"Yeah," said Mario with a sympathetic grin. "I've been on a fair share of adventures myself."

Goombalan looked at him with narrowed eyes, trying hard to remember who this gentleman was. He just couldn't recall and Mario was feeling too humble to elaborate. "Well that's great!" he finally exclaimed. "Look at us, we make quite a pair: an old adventurer in his homeland and a young adventurer seemingly far from home!"

"Speaking of," began Mario, "where are we?"

"Well, we're in Railway Wo-!"

"I remember," interrupted Mario. "But what's the greater location? You mentioned a country, what kingdom are we in?"

"Kingdom? Kid, we're not monarchists around here!" Goombalan snapped. "Welcome to the glorious Topaz Republic!" he said pridefully.

Mario paled. He'd never even heard of this country. "Um, how far is that from the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"The Mushroom Kingdom?" questioned Goombalan. "That's a whole continent away. Why do you a- Oh no way!" The realization seemed to put Goombalan into overdrive. "That's crazy! You're from all the way over _there_?" he cried. "What are you going to do?" he asked, his tone dripping with sympathy.

Mario pondered the idea for a moment, collecting his thoughts from the day's journey, and finally struck a heroic pose. "I'm going to find my friends, get back home, and hopefully find out what's going on with this crazy sky tearing business!" he declared.

"And you won't be alone!" Goombalan announced in similar heroic fashion.

"You're going with me?" gasped Mario, looking gratefully at the Goomba.

"If you'll have me," confirmed the adventurer. "I may be older now, but I still feel that passion for adventure. And now the opportunity has literally landed here. It's almost as if this is my destiny!"

"I'll be happy to have some help," Mario replied with a grin. "Are you sure you're still physically up for it?" he asked. "Er, no offense," he quickly added.

"None taken. I'm sure I couldn't handle a big adventure alone, but you seem capable enough that we'll be fine," he said confidently.

There was a brief, awkward, pause until Mario asked, "So… where should we go first?"

Goombalan thought for a second, "We should go to the capital city, San Hongo. It's right in the center of the region. However, I first need to stop by my house, it's in _Railway Village_, which is on the way."

"Alrighty!" cheered Mario, "Let's-a go!" And the two adventurers made their way along the railroad, making their way towards Railway Village.


	3. Road to San Hongo Part 2

Mario and his new partner continued alongside the railroad. They were now only a couple of miles away from Railway Wood and about seven miles from San Hongo, though the forest gave them no clues to this. The trees still only exposed brief patches of sky, never enough to reveal a skyline.

The two adventurers had fallen silent part of the way through their journey, both stuck in their own thoughts on the upcoming adventure while pretending to just be enjoying the path. Mario was the first to break the silence. "So," he began awkwardly. "What kind of skills do you have?"

Goombalan snapped out of his trance and glanced up at the plumber. "I beg your pardon?"

"Like, do you have any special attacks in battle or have special puzzle-solving skills?" asked Mario.

"Oh, of course!" replied Goombalan. His face lit up in a grin. "I've developed a mean headbonk over the years," he said, flexing the muscles on his head. "You saw that already, of course. And my years of experience have given me quite an extensive knowledge of the local areas and enemies."

"Yeah, you were quick with those stats," Mario commented. "Thanks again, by the way."

"Not a problem," said Goombalan with a bow. "But when I run into an enemy I don't know about, I use this!" he said, pulling out a thick green book.

"A tattle log?" guessed Mario, straining his eyes to look at the cover.

"You've seen one before?"

"An old friend of mine had one of these," said Mario, smiling warmly to himself. In fact, lots of things about this guy resembled a couple of old friends. Mario kept smiling for a moment, relishing the comfort of the situation.

"So you're a hammer-weilder?" Goombalan asked, eying the weapon strapped to Mario's backpack.

Mario shrugged humbly. "I guess you could say that. Jumping's my main attack though," he said.

"Fantastic, another man who recognizes the power of the jump!" replied Goombalan. "How good are you?"

"Why don't we wait until our next fight?" suggested Mario. Only a few seconds later he heared a rustling in the nearby bushes. "Which I guess is now!" he said, tensing up. A Goomba dashed out of the bushes, heading straight for Mario. "Better make a good first impression," he muttered. He took a massive leap and performed a tiny twirl in the air before crashing onto the foe, bouncing off, and landing on it for a final time, defeating it. "How was that?"

Goombalan looked at him, mouth agape. He quickly cleared his throat and kept on walking. "Not bad, kid," he said, trying to sound casual. "Where'd you learn to jump so high?" he asked.

"Eh, I taught myself back in Brooklyn," replied Mario like it wasn't a big deal.

"Brooklyn?" asked Goombalan, sending Mario a confused look. "What strange land is that? I've certainly never heard of it!"

"It's... yeah you probably haven't," sighed Mario, deciding not to elaborate.

The two continued on in awkward silence for a little while longer. With little opportunity to see the sky, they failed to notice the dark gray clouds begin to roll in. All they noticed was the forest growing gradually darker, so it was a surprise when they came to a break in the trees and the sky was covered in a blanket of gray. Even the ominous tear was hidden from view. The clouds were revealed over a large clearing around a descending hill. It was a steep hill that lacked any sort of vegetation, a fact which, for the moment, didn't concern the approaching duo.

"Looks like a storm's brewing," commented Goombalan. The phrase seemed mostly objective, with little worry. "We'll be at Railway Village soon anyways, so we shouldn't have to worry about it."

Right on cue, the rain began to fall, and it fell hard.

"Right then, let's get going," blurted the Goomba, running towards the hill. Mario quickly followed. As they got to the edge of the steep hill, the dirt began to liquify into mud beneath them. Goombalan quickly lost his footing and began to roll, head over heels, down the steep slope. Mario struggled to stand for a bit longer, but ultimately ended up slipping onto his face and sliding the rest of the way down.

Thunder crackled overhead as the duo came to a stop at the bottom of the hill. The noise of the storm provoked several piles of mud to shake and rise to pairs of feet. As they stood, the rain drained the dirt from their faces, revealing them to be three Mossy Goombas.

Mario let out an irritated sigh as he stood up. "I'm not really in the mood to stop right now," he called to the enemies. As the foes slowly started to slog towards him he whipped out his hammer. "But I guess we have no choice. Let'sa go!"

"Wait!" shouted Goombalan, jumping in front of the plumber.

Mario slid to a halt, struggling to keep his balance. "What is it? We've fought these guys before!" he said, teetering dangerously back and forth.

"There's something I didn't mention earlier," admitted Goombalan. "I didn't think it would become relevant, but these guys react to the presence of electricity."

The Mossy Goombas were getting dangerously close. "So this storm could help them?" Mario asked nervously.

"Indeed," Goombalan said grimly. He quickly pulled out the tattle log. "It says here that as long as none of them are struck by lightning, their stats go up to 4 HP and 3 Attack. It also says they can use some new, 'interesting techniques', which I find quite worrying."

"I'll keep that in mind," Mario said, gripping his hammer tightly. He stepped around Goombalan and began running towards one of the Mossy Goombas. However, he quickly lost all traction and slid helplessly towards his foe. In a panic, he held out his hammer, which actually did a bit of damage upon impact.

The Mossy Goomba's jaw hung open as if it were offended. Quickly it planted its feet solidly in the ground and Mario saw sparks gathering around the foe. "Mama-mia!" he cried, trying desperately to backpedal away, but the mud refused to give him any sort of traction. An electric barrier exploded out from the Mossy Goomba, striking Mario right in the face. Searing pain filled Mario's cheeks and he toppled over, clutching his face. All the foes noticed this and the other two Mossy Goombas slowly picked up their feet in a careful attempt to get to the plumber. The Goomba that had just attacked Mario was now standing over him menacingly.

"Hold it!" cried a voice from above. Goombalan crashed down onto the enemy's skull, bounced off, and hit it a second time. The foe stumbled backwards and slipped onto its back. Goombalan offered a nonexistent hand to Mario, who gratefully accepted it.

"Thanks," Mario said with a grin. The grin quickly turned into a cringe as his sore cheeks reacted to even basic facial expressions.

"Let's avoid running if possible," Goombalan suggested. "You know how to jump, use it!" Mario nodded and rocketed into the air, aiming for one of the approaching Goombas, hitting it twice. The Mossy Goombas sent panicked looks back and forth and each grunted with distress. The three finally nodded and one, the Goomba that had first hit Mario, let its mouth hang open.

"What the heck?" questioned Mario. He raised his hammer defensively.

"Maybe this is a new attack?" guessed Goombalan, looking between the enemies with suspicion.

The first Mossy Goomba started generating sparks in its open mouth until if formed a small ball of electricity. Without warning, it sent the ball flying out of its mouth and into the waiting mouth of another Mossy Goomba, which quickly passed it to the third. They kept passing it in a triangle, each pass making the ball slightly larger and moving a bit quicker. Mario and Goombalan turned to each other frightfully and began backing away from the foes.

After around fifteen seconds of passing, the ball of static had grown to be Mario's size. "Mama-mia!" cried Mario. The first Goomba caught the ball and suddenly turned towards the heroes. With a loud thunderclap, the Goomba shot the ball towards Mario and Goombalan. Goombalan threw himself onto the ground, just narrowly avoiding massive damage, though he felt his hair begin to tingle and rise. Mario, on the other hand, performed a back flip in the nick of time, receiving only a small shock in his toes. He landed right in front of the Goomba and gave it a powerful smack with his hammer, defeating it.

"Nice job!" cheered Goombalan, rising to his feet. "Only two more to go!" He turned towards the Mossy Goombas with a renewed confidence and jumped towards the weakened one. At the last second, it formed an electric shield around itself. Goombalan cried out in panic as he crashed into it. He was shocked and sent flying backwards.

Mario gritted his teeth angrily and jumped towards the Mossy Goomba who'd shocked Goombalan. He slightly overshot his mark, but quickly turned around and slammed down his mallet upon the foe, defeating it.

Only one Mossy Goomba was left and it quickly surrounded itself with electricity in a panic. "That won't stop me!" snapped Mario, hitting it with his hammer. The Mossy Goomba growled angrily and jumped backwards. It the began to charge up a lone electric ball, though on its own it took much longer to grow, giving Goombalan plenty of time to leap into action.

"Not so fast!" he shouted heroically, crashing down upon the foe twice, sending it tumbling to the ground. The baddies were defeated. "Hah! We did it!" cheered the old adventurer. "That was quite a rush!"

Mario shrugged. "I mean I've fought harder enemies, but I guess I'm really out of practice," he said, clutching his sore cheeks.

"As have I," Goombalan said almost defensively.

The two carefully trudged through the mud, making their way out of the clearing and back into the forest where the canopy prevented the ground from liquifying. The duo continued for about twenty minutes (at a much slower pace than they had been earlier that day). By that point, the sun seemed to be going down, adding to the already dark atmosphere provided by the storm. On the bright side, Goombalan caught sight of what appeared to be lamp posts in the distance. They had made it to Railway Wood.

* * *

><p>Railway Wood was a small, cozy village situated in a small clearing to the west of the railroad that Mario had been following all day. There were six or so buildings, mostly houses with one shop situated at the entrance to town. Each building was a small cottage adorned in earthly tones and they were all connected by broad cobblestone paths. Had Mario been able to see it during the day he would have found it to be cute and quaint, but for now all he cared for was shelter.<p>

"So who all lives here?" Mario asked as Goombalan led him to his house in the northwest corner of town.

"Mostly Goombas, none of them hostile, I swear, also a few Toads, and a Cleft who runs the shop you saw," Goombalan answered casually. He briefly pulled ahead of Mario as they came to a two story house bearing a green roof. "Welcome to my humble abode!" he announced with a smile. "Why don't you come on in?"

* * *

><p>A blonde, middle-aged Goomba in a green skirt sat at the glowing fireplace. She sat with a worried scowl on her face, which seemed to grow worse each time she looked to the clock on the wall. She jumped in surprise as the front door swung open with a loud creak. She whirled around and jumped up joyously upon seeing Goombalan standing triumphantly in the doorway.<p>

"Goombalan!" she cried, rushing towards her husband. She was prepared to give him a warm embrace, but gave it a second thought upon seeing how caked in mud he was. "Honey, where have you been? We were starting to get worried!"

Goombalan grinned sheepishly, kicking off his boots and stepped farther into the house. "Sorry, dear!" he said, looking legitimately troubled. "I didn't mean to worry you, but I had to stay out and help a fellow adventurer," he explained, stepping aside to reveal Mario standing in the doorway, shivering and clutching his arms.

"Oh," she muttered skeptically. "Yes, another adventurer." The shivering mass of plumber certainly didn't look too heroic at the moment.

"Honey, this is Mario," he said, gesturing to the plumber. "Mario, this is my beautiful wife, Goombaudrey."

Mario politely tipped his hat. "Hello."

"Hello," replied Goombaudrey. "How do you do?"

Mario let out a sigh. "I've seen better days," he admitted.

After an awkward pause, Goombaudrey finally said "Well why don't you come on in and clean up," rather reluctantly. Mario smiled gratefully and was led to the shower and given a towel.

As Goombalan returned to the spacious living room, Goombaudrey was facing the stairs calling "Goombandrew, daddy's back! And he's brought an adventurer with him!" she added the last part with a mildly bitter tone.

A young Goomba, likely no older than eight, made his way downstairs, he had short, light blonde hair and wore a sky blue shirt. When he saw Goombalan standing in the living room, he cried, "Daddy!" He ran up to his father, hopping up and down in joy. "Mommy says you brought home another adventurer! Is that true?"

Goombalan grinned, "You bet kiddo!" he said.

Goombandrew smiled brightly, "Awesome! What's he like?"

"Well," began Goombalan, "He's a human-."

"A human?" interrupted Goombandrew, "Are you sure? There's only a couple hundred humans on the Mushroom Planet, I learned that in school!"

"He's definitely unusual," admitted Goombalan. "I'm pretty sure he's human though."

"Cool!" chirped Goombandrew, doing an excited little jig. "When can I meet him?"

"Give him a chance to wash up, he's had a long day," instructed Goombalan. "Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, he's a human named Mario and he's an incredible jumper, even better than me!"

Goombandrew shook his head. "Daddy, don't make up stories!" he scolded. "I know that nobody can jump better than you!"

Goombalan chuckled to himself for a moment. "Well, you haven't seen this guy yet!"

"So cool!" exclaimed Goombandrew. "Did you learn anything else about him?"

"Yeah, turns out this guy's from the Mushroom Kingdom," he replied.

"Oh really?" asked Goombaudrey skeptically. "That's a whole continent away and the poor sap seems completely unprepared. Are you really going to believe that?"

"Well you remember watching the sky rip open, right?" Goombalan began.

"Of course."

"And how there seemed to be a burst of energy coming from it?" he asked. Goombaudrey nodded. "Evidently that struck the kingdom's capital and sent this guy and his friends flying."

"You really believe that?" sighed Goombaudrey.

Goombalan began to get frustrated. "Listen, you'd trust this guy if you talked to him," he stated matter-of-factly. "He seems like an honest man and until I'm shown otherwise then I'd be willing to trust this guy on a journey."

Goombaudrey's eyes widened. "A journey?" she gasped angrily.

"A journey!" cried Goombandrew excitedly. "Awesome!"

"Yes, a journey. Mario's friends are missing due to the tear in the sky and I've promised to help him!" Goombalan passionately declared. He stood firmly, looking his wife in the eye, as if challenging her to question his decision. She gladly did.

"Goombalan, we've settled down!" snapped Goombaudrey. "You promised that you would be done with the crazy journeys when our son was born-."

"I'm okay with journeys," cut in Goombandrew.

"Even if you were physically capable of this, you promised you wouldn't go out and risk your life anymore!" insisted Goombaudrey. She was practically steaming with anger and disbelief.

"And I_ though_ I could handle settling down," Goombalan quietly admitted. "But seeing another adventurer again reminded me of myself when I was younger. Adventuring was my life, Goombaudrey! It was yours too! I want to live like that again, just one last time!"

Goombaudrey just stared at him for a moment. "Aren't we enough for you?" she said. She was nearly silent, but her tone was full of pain and fury. With that she stomped upstairs and turned towards her room.

The two male Goombas sat in silence for a moment. "Daddy," Goombandrew finally said. "I want you to be happy. I'll try and talk to mommy!" Without even waiting for a response he scampered up the stairs, chanting something about adventure.

After a minute, Mario emerged into the living room, wearing a fresh pair of human-sized overalls (how Goombalan possessed such clothes in his house would forever remain a mystery). "You're up," he said, not getting the chance to notice the anguish on Goombalan's face.

* * *

><p>Goombaudrey soon emerged from her room alone. She spotted the human hero lounging quietly on the couch. "Mario," she called quietly. The plumber looked up as she descended the stairs and waved sleepily. "I've heard you came here in a rather interesting way. Could you tell me about that?"<p>

Mario gave her a confused look. What a weird way to ask. "Um, sure," he replied. "If you don't mind a long story." Goombaudrey shook her head, so Mario launched into the story of that day. There was something about the way he told it, perhaps the shock that registered on his face when he remembered it was still his birthday, or the playful anger he displayed when talking about Bowser, or the worry he seemed to pour into his concerns about his friends' locations. Whatever it was, Goombaudrey found herself completely accepting the legitimacy of Mario's story and a weight was lifted from her shoulders.

"Listen, I need to be frank with you Mario," Goombaudrey said once she had processed the whole story. "You seem like a trustworthy enough guy, but you're still a stranger and you're trying to make my husband do something that could hurt our family. I can't allow it!"

Mario was taken aback. "Woah woah that's not what I'm trying to do! He offered to come and I'd appreciate the help, but I'd never break up a family!" he quickly insisted.

"Thank you." She seemed relieved by that answer. The two sat in awkward silence for a moment until Goombandrew shot out of his room and scurried downstairs.

"Ohmigosh a human!" he exclaimed, jumping wildly around Mario. "Oh this is so cool!" He finally stopped bouncing and stood in front of Mario, looking up at his mustache. "Hey, Mr. Mario! Daddy said you can jump higher than him, is that true?"

"Back up, I can show you!" Mario instructed with a grin. The first impression jumps never got old. He hopped into the air with little warning, flying far above the two shocked Goombas, did a quick flip, and landed with a thumbs-up. There was an impressed pause for a moment.

"So cooooool!"

* * *

><p>It was agreed that Mario would spend the night at Goombalan's house and they would set out the next day (or so Goombalan though, Goombaudrey intended to officially ban his travel that morning). So, they all sat in front of the fireplace that night, Goombalan and Mario were swapping stories (and Mario's heroism became evermore apparent) while Goombandrew excitedly listened in. Goombaudrey went about the house doing various things to get Mario set up for the night, but she did stop in a few times to listen.<p>

At about 9:30 p. m, there was an unexpected knock at the front door. "Who knocks on somebody's door at this hour?" grumbled Goombalan, getting up to answer it. Curious, Mario followed as well.

The door creaked open to reveal a Beanie (a common bean-shaped enemy from the Beanbean Kingdom) dressed in a golden cloak.

"Hello, who are you?" asked Goombalan a bit rudely.

Rather than replying, the Beanie simply stepped forward to inspect Mario. He took an uncomfortably long amount of time staring into Mario's eyes. "Yes, this is the one," he finally concluded.

"Sorry, what?" demanded Mario, looking at him confusedly.

"You posses a strong spirit," explained the Beanie. "It's just as master predicted. You may be able to overcome your foe!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Mario, growing frustrated at the vague statements.

The Beanie suddenly jumped forward madly. "But I must first test your strength!" he roared. A beam of light shot from his forehead straight at Mario. With a shout, the plumber ducked, narrowly avoiding the beam, which left a scorch mark on the wall.

"What's going on?" gasped Goombaudrey. She walked to the doorway and looked from the scorch mark to the Beanie. "What's happening?" she cried fearfully.

"Don't worry!" Mario assured her confidently. "We got this!" He very quietly added "I think" as a shiver went up his spine. This goon was definitely a strange one.

The Beanie seemed to be charging up another beam. "Wait!" pleaded Goombalan, jumping forward.

"Yes?" the Beanie asked impatiently, losing focus on the beam.

"Can we at least take this outside so we don't destroy my house?"

The golden-robed Beanie shrugged. "Location doesn't matter. Just as long as I can test this man's spirit." Mario, Goombalan, and their new few slowly emerged onto the cobblestone street, rain still dumping in buckets upon them.

"Are we ready?" asked the Beanie, directing the question to Mario. He nodded, taking a fighting stance and whipping out his hammer. "Then it's time to test your spirit!" the boss cried, suddenly making a mad dash towards Mario.


	4. Road to San Hongo Part 3

The Beanie immediately began to charge up another beam of light, his forehead glowing brightly. Mario and Goombalan quickly jumped out of his range as he fired the mysterious attack. "Goombalan!" cried Mario, "Give me some info on this guy!"

Goombalan flipped wildly through the tattle log. "He's not in here!" gasped Goombalan, looking up at the foe in shock. "This guy is far from common."

"I suppose I shall enlighten you to make this a fair fight," mused the Beanie as he charged up another beam. He fired it at Mario, narrowly missing, and began his explanation. "I am called Fava and that's all you will learn of my origins. I have 20 HP and no defense and have two types of attacks: my radiant beam and the boomerang of light. The beam does 3 damage and the boomerang does 1."

"Mama-mia, 20 HP? I guess we're in for a long battle," sighed Mario

Fava created a boomerang made of pure light energy between his teeth and chucked it at Mario. The projectile went way over his head, much to his relief. Mario was so relieved that he didn't notice it curve downward and swipe his feet out from under him. "Right," he groaned. "Boomerangs come back."

"That's a dirty move and you know it!" barked Goombalan, jumping into the air and crashing down on Fava's head.

"No!" cried Fava, backing up wildly. "You are not supposed to attack me! I'm testing _his_ spirit, not _yours_!"

"Well any 'foe' you think he's gonna face will have to deal with me too!" replied Goombalan. He quickly rolled out of the way as Fava tried to strike him with a radiant beam.

Mario ran in before Fava could charge up another attack. He swung his hammer as he ran by, sending the foe flying. As Fava landed, Mario jumped up and bounced on him once, but was struck by a radiant beam before he could hit a second time. He slowly fell from the apex of his jump and landed gracelessly on his back.

Fava was preparing another attack before Mario could even get up. "Mario!" cried Goombalan, dashing towards the scuffle. He had fire in his eyes as he leapt into the air and slammed into the boss. He decided not to go for a second hit and backed away as Fava fired a radiant beam right at the spot where he had just been. The baddie then quickly synthesized another boomerang and chucked it in a path that was sure to hit both heroes.

Mario dashed forward and struck the boomerang with his hammer, vaporizing it. Goombalan gave him a grateful look. "Thanks Mario!"

"No problem!" called Mario as he dashed forward and gave Fava a strong smack in the face with his hammer. Fava quickly prepared another beam and shot it at Mario. Goombalan barely managed to tackle the plumber out of the way.

* * *

><p>Goombaudrey watched nervously from the doorway, straining her eyes to get a good look at the action through the sheets of rain. "Oh I can hardly watch!" she gasped.<p>

Goombandrew, meanwhile, was cheering from beside her. "You get'im, dad!" he called, bouncing from foot to foot in excitement.

"Sweetie, this is very serious," scolded Goombaudrey. How could he just watch as his father risked his life and _cheer_?

"Well yeah," muttered Goombandrew. "But look at daddy, he's having a great time!"

Goombaudrey looked at the brawl skeptically. That was her husband fighting for his life to drive out that goon. It wasn't some game. Of course he wasn't having fun!

"Take this!" cried Goombalan, landing another two hits on Fava and narrowly escaping another beam. Goombaudrey's eyes widened at that shout. There really was something different in his tone. A new sort of energy she hadn't seen before. Actually no, she quickly figured out what that energy was, she just hadn't seen it in a decade. Somehow Goombalan had recaptured that invigorated spirit of his prime years and his wife finally saw how alive he seemed. It wasn't fun, but perhaps he was experiencing something greater.

"You got this, honey!" she found herself cheering.

* * *

><p>Fava was only halfway down and his attacks were starting to get tiring. Goombalan certainly wasn't out of the fight yet, but he was growing a bit nervous. He stood to the side for a moment as Mario came in with his hammer (and missed). Suddenly a cheer reached his ears. He'd already heard Goombandrew's constant support, but this was new. He looked back to the doorway where, much to his surprise, Goombaudrey was grinning at him.<p>

"Crush that loon!" she insisted.

Goombalan grinned and nodded, whirling back to the fight at hand. Mario had just gotten struck with another radiant beam.

"You're growing weak, are you not?" asked Fava. "Perhaps I was wrong in coming here."

"You got that right!" came a voice from above. Goombalan headbonked Fava and, taking advantage of the foe's surprise, hit him a second time. "Coming here was the biggest mistake you've ever made and you'll really be hurting for it!"

Mario dug a mushroom out of his travel pack and scarfed it down. Feeling renewed, he leapt into action, crashing his hammer down on Fava, though only weakly. He dashed away before Fava could even charge up a light beam.

The foe instead decided to spawn another light boomerang and chuck it haphazardly, quickly forming another and throwing it, then a third one, and a forth one, and finally he threw a fifth boomerang.

"Mama-mia!" cried Mario as whirling projectiles came in from all sides. He ducked under one, sidestepped the next, but was swiped off his feet by a third and the remaining two went barreling towards Goombalan who took them both to the face.

"I'm starting to hate this guy a bit," groaned Goombalan as he hopped back up.

"Why?" asked Fava confusedly. "I'm simply testing this man's strength!"

"And you're being pretty irritating about it!" snapped Goombalan, jumping and landing on the foe and quickly getting a second bounce in. "He's on the ropes!" Goombalan declared, preparing for another jump. As Goombalan leapt into the air, Mario saw that Fava was preparing another radiant beam. He swifty dashed over to the boss and smacked him in the head, distracting him long enough for Goombalan to get two more hits in.

"Grah!" screeched Fava. He started rapidly shooting radiant beams in any direction he could.

Mario dove desperately out of the way and behind a building. "What's he doing?" he called to Goombalan who was still running for cover.

"He's down to 1 HP!" announced Goombalan. "I think he's getting desperate.

After a moment, Fava stopped, exhausted. "Come out and fight! Master will not accept a coward!"

Mario gritted his teeth and ran out at full speed. "Gladly!" He took a massive jump, soaring in a wide arc all the way to the golden-robed Beanie's head. With that last devastating stomp, Fava collapsed to the cobblestone pavement.

"Alright!" cheered Mario and Goombalan. Mario gave a victorious peace sign and Goombalan kicked the air triumphantly.

"Master may be right about you," Fava moaned from the street. "The test is over, leave me be!"

"Not so fast!" snapped Goombalan, stomping up to their fallen foe. "You've got some explaining to do!"

Fava hopped to his feet. "I cannot say anything!" he insisted.

In a rage, Mario ran up and grabbed him by the robes. "Listen, I've been having a pretty bad day, so I'm feeling unusually vicious. You better explain what the heck that was about or you'll wish you never left that 'master' of yours!" He shook his fists as he spoke, shaking Fava violently.

"I cannot say anything!" Fava frightfully repeated. Summoning the last of his strength, he charged up a radiant beam and shot it right into Mario's face, sending the hero careening to the ground. "Good luck, good sir!" called Fava, dashing out of the town at full speed.

Goombalan suddenly cast a weary look towards Mario, "Let's head back inside, I'm beat!" Mario nodded in concurrence and the duo headed back into the Goomba's house.

As soon as they entered, they were met by a hyper Goombandrew. "I saw everything!" he shouted, "That was awesome! I mean, that guy was like _pwow! _And Daddy was like _roow! _And then Mr. Mario was like _wahoo!"_

Goombaudrey smiled, "That's enough Goombandrew! Give you father and Mr. Mario some space," she said, shooing him away.

"But it was so cool-!" continued Goombandrew.

Goombaudrey ignored her hyper son and turned towards the newly-muddied duo. "That was... quite impressive," she admitted. "Goombalan, I haven't seen you fight like that in years!"

"I didn't even know I could anymore," replied Goombalan, blushing a bit.

"It wasn't just the fighting though, I saw that old adventuring spark reignite in you. You really did seem alive." Goombaudrey paused for a moment, clearly deep in thought. Finally she spoke up, though her tone was clearly reluctant. "I see why you want to go on this journey now. And I think you should."

Goombalan's eyes widened. "You really think so?"

Goombaudrey nodded. "You need one last big journey."

Goombalan grinned widely. "Thank you, honey!"

Mario smiled too. "I'll really appreciate having him along," he said to Goombaudrey. "He's already been a great ally."

"Yay, adventure!" chirped Goombandrew. Everyone smiled and laughed with relief. The danger was over for now.

* * *

><p>Mario woke up fairly late the next morning. After dressing and grabbing his travel pack, he walked into the kitchen where he found the entire family of Goombas waiting for him.<p>

"Mario!" called Goombalan, "What took you so long?"

Mario grinned sheepishly, "I'm a late sleeper."

"Alright," said Goombalan, "I'll take that into account next time I go to bed."

"I've got breakfast ready for you," put in Goombaudrey, pointing to a plate of pancakes.

"Mama-mia!" Mario said in awe, eyeing the delicious stack of pancakes. While he dug in, Goombalan relayed their vague plans to Goombaudrey and Goombandrew.

Their plans were both simple and complicated, depending on how you looked at them. They'd first head to San Hongo to try and find information about the location of Mario's friends (and Bowser). Then they'd pretty much go on a wild goose chase, looking for them. The problem arose when discussing the rip in the sky. Somebody had to be behind it, and Mario and Goombalan may have to take them on.

"Don't forget about that Beanie," added Mario. "Fava, or whatever his name was."

"How much you wanna bet his master has something to do with that tear?" asked Goombalan.

"No idea," said Mario between bites. "Whoever they are, I'd like to meet them and find out what the heck's going on." Things were getting too complicated for a concrete plan.

They walked to the front door, "Be safe!" insisted Goombaudrey.

"And beat up some bad guys for me!" added Goombandrew.

"Bye guys!" said Goombalan, sighing, "I'll miss you!" He gave his son a hug and gave his wife a kiss then turned to Mario. "Are you ready?"

Mario nodded, "Let'sa go!"

They stepped out into the sunny and (miraculously) dry streets of Railway Village. Goombalan turned to Mario, "Before we go, we should stop by the shop and stock up on items!"

"Yeah," agreed Mario, "That sounds like a good plan."

They walked to a medium sized building at the edge of town, "Well, here it is, Cleft-Mart," announced Goombalan. They entered. The shop was mostly empty, just green walls, a gray carpet, and a gray counter in the back. On said counter were a few mushrooms, syrups, and fire flowers. They bought three mushrooms, a syrup, and a couple of fire flowers. Goombalan thanked the Cleft shop-keep and they headed for the door.

"Hold on!" the Cleft boomed. The duo stopped in their tracks, nearly falling over.

"What's the matter, Clefto?" asked Goombalan casually.

"I nearly forgot to give you guys your Rewards Card!" he said, pulling out a white slip of plastic.

"Rewards Card?" asked Goombalan, "Since when do you have a rewards program?"

"You haven't heard?" gasped Clefto. "It's a new plan being implemented all across the Republic! For every item you buy from a shop within the Topaz Republic, you earn a point. After a certain amount of points, you earn free rewards. I think it'll be a wonder for business!"

"Sweet!" commented Mario, snatching the card from the shop-keep. "How many points do we need for the first reward?"

"Well, you actually can't get rewards on that blank card," Clefto said awkwardly. "That's just so we can start tracking your points, you'll get the Bronze Rewards Card once you buy 25 items in the Republic. You're at six by the way."

"Thanks Clefto!" Goombalan called as they strolled out of the shop. They walked eastward from the shop to the very edge of Railway Wood. With one last glance back to Goombalan's house, they reentered the woods.

"Well, back to the railroad I guess," said Mario as they came under the canopy.

"It's not so bad around here," comforted Goombalan. "The enemies don't really like getting near San Hongo, so they don't tend to go passed Railway Village.

They walked for a little over half an hour and just as Goombalan predicted, there was not a foe to be found. Mario was relieved, but at the same time the trip was getting a little boring. Neither adventurer had a ton to say other than Goombalan's occasional environmental trivia and soon enough Mario was growing sick of the woods he'd spent the last day in. Just when Mario was starting to think that the trees would never end, Goombalan excitedly announced "we're almost out!"

"Huh?"

"We're almost out of Railway Wood," Goombalan repeated. "Look way ahead, do you see where the ground turn to concrete?" Mario strained his eyes, barely catching glimpse of the gray ground ahead. "That means San Hongo isn't too far off! The forest should end in about half a mile."

"Sweet!" cheered Mario. Their pace sped up significantly and within a few minutes the trees came to an end and the blinding sunlight shone down upon them, revealing the landscape ahead. The few miles of land directly ahead of them was dominated by flat suburbs with houses widely distributed along the bright green lawns. No single aspect of that that part of the expanse seemed to separate itself other than the railway itself, which cut straight through the suburbs. It was what was beyond suburbia that really caught Mario's eye.

Several miles ahead the land rose to form lush forested hills that stretched for twelve miles across the horizon. The hills weren't very tall, certainly nowhere near mountain level, but they noticeably dominated the horizon. Buildings of all size weaved naturally throughout the hills in narrow roadways with wide highways stretching from hill to hill, gliding over the rest of the city. Massive office complexes and apartment buildings jutted from various points. The city was quite distinct, but it wasn't clear whether the hills defined the city or the city defined the hills

"Wow," was all Mario could say as the city came into view. His pace slowed until he was barely plodding along, just gazing wondrously at the city.

"There it is, San Hongo!" Goombalan said. There was a hint of pride for his capital in his voice. "And if you think that's cool, you should see the harbor in the northwest, it's gorgeous!"

The duo walked for a little longer until they came to an orange train platform at the very edge of San Hongo. A Toad wearing a black suit and cap approached them as they climbed onto the platform. "Welcome, gentlemen! If you don't mind me asking, why did you come in by foot? Did a train break down?" The Toad began clutching his temples as if predicting the headache that would come from dealing with a wrecked train.

"No sir!" Goombalan assured him. The Toad breathed a sigh of relief. "We just came from Railway Wood, that's all."

"Good to hear!" replied the Toad, fanning himself lightly.

Mario and Goombalan were about to continue on when Mario suddenly stopped and turned to the Toad. "Have you seen as blonde human woman in a pink dress recently?" he asked urgently.

"No sir," the Toad replied quickly. He thought for a moment and asked, "Who is she anyways? You're not the first to ask about her today."

"Well she's- wait what?" shouted Mario. "Who else was asking?"

"I can tell this is urgent," muttered the Toad. "It was a Toad about half your height. He had red spots and wore a blue vest. Sound familiar?"

"Very!" gasped Mario. "Where did he go?"

"Well after he asked about the blonde, he asked where the observatory was, so I directed him to head to the peak of ol' Freedom Hill over there," he said, pointing to a particularly tall hill to the northeast.

"Thanks a lot!" Mario shouted, immediately running off.

The Toad looked after them as they ran off. "Poor blonde," he muttered. "How many stalkers can a lady have?"

"Hey, wait for me!" cried Goombalan, giving quick chase. "Who are we after?" he asked once he caught up with the speeding plumber.

Mario slowed down to a jog so Goombalan could easily keep pace. "He's my friend Toad. Plus he may be on Princess Peach's tail!"

Mario had already described Peach to Goombalan, so he knew exactly who Mario was talking about. "Fantastic, let's get going then!"

They wandered somewhat aimlessly through the winding city streets, attempting to get to Freedom Hill. After about half an hour, the reached the base of the large hill. They were strolling along the corner of a small plaza that bordered a busy street when something caught Mario's eye. Way down at the other end of the plaza he saw what appeared to be a red-capped Toad wearing a blue vest.

"I think I see Toad!" Mario shouted hopefully. He started sprinting down the edge of the plaza, hopping over several sets of benches and getting strange looks from the locals along the way. By the time he got within fifty feet of the corner, he saw his target. It was without a doubt Toad, but unfortunately he was climbing onto a bus that looked ready to take off. "Wait!" cried Mario, but it was too late. The doors to the bus shut quickly behind Toad and took off down the road. Mario sighed and looked at the bus as it drove off. On its back it had an electric sign displaying the words "Floral Plateau" in red.

Goombalan caught up with him a few seconds later, panting deeply. "Was that him?" he gasped in between breaths.

Mario nodded. "He's on a bus heading for some place called Floral Plateau, any idea where that is?"

Goombalan grinned widely. "Of course I do, kid! It's just to the southeast of San Hongo. Let's see if we can catch up!"

* * *

><p>After another half hour of wandering through the confusing city streets, Mario and Goombalan were walking down a road that went straight through two of the forested hills and right out of San Hongo. They now walked on a small patch of sidewalk surrounded by empty grassland. Up ahead, they came to a roundabout at the end of the road. In the center of the roundabout there was a large sign that said "Welcome to Floral Plateau! Please, no littering."<p>

There wasn't a single bus in sight. "I'm willing to bet he beat us here," sighed Mario. "I guess we should keep on going though."

"That's the spirit!" Goombalan said encouragingly. He walked over to a worn footpath heading southeast from the end of the road. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll catch up."

Mario smiled weakly. "Yeah, let'sa go!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: Next time we'll start Chapter 1! I hope you guys have enjoyed the story so far! Feel free to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it! See ya later ~Viva<strong>


	5. Of Mountains and Molehills Part 1

**Author's Notes: So yeah I've been forgetting to put disclaimers on here. I don't own Mario or any of that, just my OCs, but not their species. No lawsuits please. And with that out of the way, let's get on to Chapter 1! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 1: Of Mountains and Molehills<p>

Floral Plateau was a pleasant, tranquil area. A cool breeze tumbled across the landscape, making the air a perfectly comfortable temperature despite the hot sun shining above. A clear brook cut trough the landscape and produced countless flowers of all colors around its banks. A few birds were cruising through the area, putting pleasant songs into the air. Though, the singing was mostly drowned out by a whining noise coming from a red, hairy object.

"I hope we can find a place where we're not constantly moving alongside something," grumbled Mario. "I'm sick of it already."

Goombalan glanced at the brook to his left. "I don't really mind. I think it's pretty peaceful."

Mario took a look at his surroundings. It was a pretty nice place, pretty peaceful too. Maybe he should just enjoy the journey and quit whining. "Yeah," he finally said. "It is nice."

Without warning, a Goomba came charging out of the grass. "Well, there goes the peace," said Mario with a small laugh.

Goombalan leapt into the air and headbonked the Goomba twice, defeating it. "Hey, an adventure's never complete without enemies," he reminded Mario.

"I'll say."

Mario's mind began to drift back to his friends. It was dawning on him just how much of a task finding them would be. He had to find Peach, Bowser (uhg), Luigi, Toad, Toadette, Yoshi, Daisy, Wario (uhg again), Waluigi, and Rosalina. He somehow had to locate all ten of them. He was already on day two and he _might_ be finding Toad that day. Chances are that even if the news was helpful in finding his friends(stories of giant turtle attacks came to mind), he'd be stuck in the Topaz Republic for a few weeks. So much for going home quickly. That wasn't even taking into account the other things he might have to deal with.

Mario was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice the Mossy Goomba sneak up on him until it sank its fangs into his leg.

"Yeowch!" he screeched as electricity jolted through his leg. He tried to shake the foe off, but it wouldn't let go, so he bashed it a couple of times with his hammer until it was defeated and let go.

"Are you alright, kid?" asked Goombalan once the baddie was defeated. "You seem pretty distracted."

"I'm just realizing that this journey is going to take forever," sighed Mario. "You don't have to stay the whole time if you don't want to."

"Don't say that!" insisted Goombalan. He partially wanted to comfort Mario, but he was also terrified of losing this adventure opportunity. "I'm here to help! Plus I'm sure things will go much faster once we get into the groove of things!"

Mario smiled a bit. "Thanks," he said. "I swear I'm usually more confident than this, but I wasn't even remotely prepared for this. You don't go from a big birthday party straight into a huge adventure, know what I mean?"

Goombalan chuckled loudly at that. "Actually yeah, that sounds pretty rough!" He paused for a moment. "Well if you really wanna get this over with quickly then let's go a little faster, you're really starting to drag there, kid!"

* * *

><p>They continued along the brook for a while, occasionally encountering a Goomba or one of its subspecies. As they walked, the gurgling of the stream grew louder and louder. Finally Mario looked over to the stream and saw, much to his surprise, that it had widened significantly.<p>

"Woah, I don't remember it being that big," he commented.

"Yeah, I would guess that we're about at the point where that brook becomes a river, the Glassy River to be specific," explained Goombalan. "Supposedly it will split off into two parts at some point."

"Do you think we'll have to cross it?" asked Mario, looking over at the rushing river that spanned thirty or so yards.

"Yeah probably. I don't see what's so special about crossing a bridge though."

"I didn't even think about a bridge," muttered Mario, looking down in embarassment.

As they continued walking, Mario kept looking down at the river. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about Glassy River just felt really powerful. Mario knew that was really weird to think. This wasn't a particularly noteworthy river, yet he was almost starting to fear it.

Goombalan noticed Mario frequently looking over at the river, growing visibly worried. "Crazy amateur," he muttered to himself, shaking his head.

Mario looked back to the river one last time, prepared to accept he was just being weird. Yet this time he actually saw something. A vague shape darted passed him in the water without warning. "Wah!" he screamed in surprise, hopping away from the water.

"Okay, what the heck is up with you?" snapped Goombalan. "I've never seen anyone get so freaked out by a river!"

"I swear I saw something!" said Mario shakily. "Whatever it was, it was giving me strange vibes."

"Sounds like one heck of an adventurer's sense," commented Goombalan. "Maybe a little too sensitive to danger," he added to himself.

Mario shrugged, the overwhelming vibe had vanished from the river and he calmed down. "It's probably nothing, sorry about the freak out."

* * *

><p>They continued for a little while, without anything significant happening until Goombalan suddenly ducked behind a bush. "Back here!" he hissed.<p>

Mario hopped behind the bush, "What's going on?"

"Koopas!"

"So?" questioned Mario, "They're not so bad!"

"Yeah," agreed Goombalan, "But if we can sneak up on them, it'll be even easier!"

"The same could be said for any enemy," argued Mario.

Goombalan sighed, "Just listen to this." He pulled out his tattle log, "Koopa Troopas are the most basic baddies of the Koopa Clan. The Green and Red ones are identical in statistics except for the Green ones have 4 HP, and the Red ones have 5, but due to their thick shells, they both have a defense of 1. They attack by getting into their shells and slamming into you which does 2 damage." Goombalan took a deep breath and continued, "The easiest method of defeating a Koopa is to jump on it, which will knock it on its back, rendering it unable to attack and lowering its defense to zero."

"That was a mouthful," chuckled Mario. "But thanks. You ready to go?" Goombalan nodded. "Let'sa go!" shouted Mario as they shot out of the bushes. Three red Koopas and one green one whirled around to face them, but before they could react, Mario and Goombalan each crashed down upon a red Koopa, knocking them both over, and came down for a second hit (though these were the first hits that did any damage).

The green Koopa and remaining red Koopa gasped upon seeing their helpless comrades. They both ducked into their shells and started speeding towards Mario and Goombalan, sending a rainbow of flowers flying in every direction. Goombalan stepped out of the path of the red Koopa while Mario pulled out his hammer to counter the green. Just as the spinning green shell was right in front of him, Mario sent his hammer crashing down on the Koopa. The green Koopa popped out of its shell in shock, and Mario took advantage of that to jump on its head. He was about to finish off the green Koopa when a red shell crashed into his back and knocked him over.

"Back, beast!" shouted Goombalan, performing a headbonk on the foe.

Mario and Goombalan looked at the four enemies scattered around them. All four Koopas were left helplessly on their backs. The two adventurers glanced at each other, stifling snickers. And to think they had been expecting a challenge only a minute ago.

"See, I told you earlier, kid," said Goombalan with a sly grin, "We got this adventure in the bag!"

"Yeah I suppose you're ri- Goombalan do you smell gasoline?" Mario said, suddenly cutting himself off as the breeze carried in the strange fumes.

"Diesel," corrected Goombalan, sniffing the air. "The doesn't make any sense though," he added confusedly. "Floral Plateau isn't exactly familiar with technology."

"Great, another grassland with Amish qualities," chuckled Mario under his breath. He took another sniff and pointed ahead. "Let's see if we can find whatever's making this smell."

They walked along the riverbank for another minute or so until they saw a hastily thrown together steel bridge in the distance. Upon closer inspection they saw that the bridge, as well as the ground on either side, was covered with large industrial crates and had bulldozers parked all over the place. Various Monty Moles were scurrying from crate to dozer to mole to crate and an abundance of other patterns.

Goombalan stepped onto the bridge, his boot coming down with a clank on the metal flooring. "I'll admit, I never expected to see industrial activity like this on Floral Plateau."

"It's called progress, dude," commented a Monty Mole as it ran by.

In the center of the bridge, an area devoid of crates and bulldozers a young, female Koopa stood firmly in the way of three Monty Moles. "I once again request that you all leave this area, please. If you are to continue then my community will fall under serious threat," she said sternly to the moles. Her voice was monotone, in a way that was professional and calm rather than robotic. She was a bit shorter than most Koopas and wore a cyan shell and gray pantsuit. Her hair was brown with a hint of red and tied into a tight bun.

"Get outta here, lady!" grunted one of the Monty Moles impatiently. "We ain't gonna ruin your little town and even if we were, we got the permits to do so!"

"Now get outta the way!" demanded another mole.

The Koopa folded her arms. "I'm sorry sirs, but I'm afraid I cannot do that." This lady was clearly standing her ground.

"Get. Out!" shouted the third mole, whipping out a rock and chucking it right at her forehead. The koopa stood her ground.

"Woah, looks like we got a little rebel here!" called another Monty Mole on the bridge. He and the three other Moles on the bridge all swarmed around the Koopa, surrounding her entirely. One-by-one, each mole pulled out a rock, but the Koopa sat there, unmoving. Mario decided he had seen enough.

"Stop!" cried Mario, jumping into the center of the crowd next to the Koopa. Goombalan quickly followed.

One of the moles hit Mario in the stomach with a rock. "Get outta here dude! This isn't your business!" he snapped.

"Well it looks to me like you're harming an innocent!" replied Goombalan, motioning to the Koopa, who seemed to appreciate the shelter between them.

"And you plan on hurting her town," added Mario, his hand instinctively moved towards his hammer.

"That still doesn't make it your business," sneered another mole. "What do you think you are, some kinda hero?"

Without warning, Mario whipped out the hammer and swung upwards, connecting with one of the moles' chin and sending him flying. "That's exactly what I think I am!" he declared confidently. "So if you wanna hurt this girl, you gotta get through the two of us!" He held out his hammer threateningly towards each mole, making them back up nervously.

"This dude seems serious," muttered the mole Mario had hit in the chin. "Maybe we should just leave them alone."

"Nonsense!" barked another mole, clutching his rock tightly. "We've got a job to do and we're not about to let a few grunts and a fat guy stop us!"

"Fat guy?" roared Mario, placing a hand over his stomach. "Goombalan, let's take these guys down! This just got personal!" And with that, he leapt right at the offending mole, ready to give him two crushing stomps.

"Kids and their tempers," sighed Goombalan. He suddenly struck a battle stance. "I can't allow him to outdo me though," he declared to nobody in particular before jumping onto another Monty Mole.

After getting a couple of hits in on a mole, Goombalan began to recite the Monty Moles' stats. "These guys are Monty Moles, and quite insolent ones at that! They have 7 HP, 0 defense, and two types of attacks: they can throw rocks for 2 damage or ram into you for 1, but the ram attack has a chance of knocking you over, so be careful. Weight comments probably don't warrant a beating, but we should at least teach these guys a lesson for trying to hurt an innocent Koopa!"

A rock suddenly hit Goombalan in the back of the head. "Thanks for ruining our mystery," spat one of the moles. Goombalan quickly launched into the air and landed on the rude foe a couple of times.

Mario was having a bit of trouble. Four of the moles had surrounded him and he was constantly having to duck and jump in order to avoid being pelted by rocks. He slammed his hammer down on one of the moles and quickly jumped over him to get out of the crowd. Just as Mario whirled around to face the moles again, he saw one of them running right at him, arms flailing around madly. The impact knocked the wind out of Mario and sent him tumbling onto his back.

The four Monty Moles quickly surrounded him again, snickering wickedly. They each pulled out rocks as Mario struggled to get back up. Before anyone could attack Mario something crashed into one of the moles and sent him flying into another. Mario looked at the cyan object that had stopped at his side while the other two moles went to help their allies. Without warning, the object sprouted limbs and stood up.

"I never got a chance to thank you, sir," said the Koopa, offering Mario a hand. Mario gratefully accepted and she pulled him to his feet. "I hope my aid in battle will suffice as proper thanks."

Mario flashed her a thumbs up. "Thanks!" he called, immediately jumping towards one of the moles. He stomped on it twice and the Koopa immediately followed up by slamming her shell into it.

"I better not get my pay docked for this!" cried the Monty Mole overdramatically as he crashed to the ground defeated.

"Mikey!" gasped one of the moles. "How dare you?" he spat, chucking a rock at the Koopa. It bounced off her shell, only doing a little damage. "Mikey was my co-worker!" cried the mole. "He was my bro! He was my," he paused for dramatic effect, "_broworker_!"

"Magnus, dude, I'm still alive," groaned Mikey Mole from the ground. "Just outta commission here."

"Sweet deal, bro!" cheered Magnus Mole, hopping up and down. "But we're still gonna take revenge on these guys," he said, lunging at Mario without warning. The two moles next to him shrugged and quickly followed. Mario jumped up and landed on Magnus once, but was struck out of the air by a rock before he could get a second hit. The Koopa was about to attack Magnus as well when a cry came from behind them. The other three moles had surrounded Goombalan and had rocks prepared.

"Don't worry about me!" called Mario, pulling out his hammer. "Go help Goombalan!"

The Koopa nodded. "Yes sir!" she said. She ducked into her shell and shot across the metal surface of the bridge, slamming into one of the Monty Moles. Goombalan took advantage of the chaos and jumped onto the hit mole and out of the way of the rocks. The Koopa jumped out of the way of a charging mole and hit it with her shell. The third mole attempted to hit her in the head with a rock, but Goombalan jumped on him before he could attack., hitting him twice. Goombalan then turned to the weakest of the three moles and headbonked him twice.

"That was cruel," moaned the mole, crashing to the floor below.

"That was _justice_," corrected Goombalan with a victorious grin.

"Whatever, Morris was a wimp anyways," said one of the moles as it dashed at the Koopa. She was unprepared for the attack and got knocked helplessly on her back.

"Whatever, Morton," spat the fallen Morris.

"Please, good sirs, somebody help me up!" she called, rocking back and forth in a desperate attempt to get back up.

"I'll save you!" shouted Goombalan, dashing over and scooping her up. He took the full brunt of Morton Mole's rock (meant for the Koopa) as he dashed by. He set her down and before she could even thank him, he jumped into the air and headbonked the nameless mole foe twice. The Koopa followed up with a hit from her shell and the baddie collapsed.

Right at that moment they heard a dramatic scream of "Magnus, Martin, avenge me!" Evidently Mario's fight was going well too.

Said plumber dashed up to his allies. "Alright, it's three-on-three now!" he said with a grin.

"Let us dispose of these hooligans," the Koopa said. Her voice had grown a bit shaky over the battle, but she still stood with a confident air to her.

Magnus, Martin, and Morton all clambered towards their opponents. "This ain't good, fellas," gulped Martin, shakily pulling out a rock and chucking it at Mario, who quickly ducked under it. Mario jumped at him and stomped on his head once. Morton tried to pull out a rock and hit Mario with it as he landed, but Goombalan headbonked him before he could. The mole was caught so off guard that Goombalan was able to hit him twice. The Koopa slammed her shell into Magnus at about the same time to prevent him from trying to hit Mario.

Evidently that last hit had been too much for Magnus. "Forgive me, broworkers!" he gasped, collapsing.

Mario quickly turned around and hit Morton right on the head with his hammer, which sent him falling to the ground.

Martin looked around at his six fallen coworkers and then back to his three opponents. "Mommy!" he cried, running down the bridge.

Mario looked at the fleeing foe with a chuckle. "Let's just let him go guys."

As Martin Mole vanished behind the piles of industrial equipment, the Koopa turned towards Mario and Goombalan. "I am in your debts, sirs," she said gratefully as she bowed. "Had you two not shown up, those men surely would have incapacitated me."

"No worries!" said Mario, "Those guys seemed like they were up to no good, so of course we had to stop them!"

"Yeah, that's what heroes do!" added Goombalan, making sure to say "heroes" in a particularly epic voice.

"You two truly are heroes," replied the Koopa with another bow. "However, I am afraid that the moles will still achieve their goal."

"And that is?"

"Part of our plateau's famous Glassy River splits off and runs into an underground cave," explained the Koopa. "Those moles wish to dam off that part of the river and completely mine out that cave."

Mario looked at her skeptically. "No offense, but what's wrong with a mining operation?"

"Glassy Cave is a sacred part of the river. Without the cave's waters much of the plateau will dry up," the Koopa sighed. "What is Floral Plateau if nothing can grow?"

"I see," said Mario, pausing to think for a moment. "Well then I guess we'll have to head down there and have a word with those Monty Moles!" he declared.

"What about your friends?" asked Goombalan.

"Toad can wait," said Mario sternly. "It sounds like Floral Plateau can't."

"Spoken like a true hero!" declared Goombalan with a grin. "Let's get going then!"

The Koopa smiled warmly at the duo. "I appreciate your help. I already owe you two so much. Thank you," she paused awkwardly for a moment.

"I'm Goombalan!" the Goomba immediately announced.

"It'sa me-a Mario!"

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mario and Goombalan. My name is Kooth. Now then, if we are all ready, I suggest we proceed to my village." Mario and Goombalan gave their respective affirmations (likely something along the lines of Mario's frequent "let'sa go") and the trio ventured deeper through Floral Plateau.

After the trio had left the bridge and were definitely out of earshot, a voice echoed over the bridge. "You hear that?" groaned Morton Mole, still on the ground. "Sounds like those punks are gonna try to mess things up at the mine. We better call corporate and beef up security. A Molecorp operation ain't about to be thwarted by a fat guy and his plucky little friends!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: As always please leave a review letting me know what you think of the story so far! I'd really appreciate the feedback!<strong>


	6. Of Mountains and Molehills: Part 2

**Author's Notes: Disclaimer, I don't own Mario, don't sue please. Additionally, don't get offended by the villains being big business capitalists here. This is a Mario story, anything remotely resembling a political statement is being played for laughs. Also, Nintendo recently confirmed that Toad and Toadette aren't siblings, so that little tidbit has been edited out of the introduction chapter.**

* * *

><p>"Great job fighting back there, Kooth," commended Goombalan, giving the Koopa a hearty pat on the back.<p>

Kooth blushed humbly. "Thank you, sir. It is only proper to be able to defend yourself," she said, "Or at least that is what father tells me."

"Do you really need to defend yourself all that often around here?" Mario asked, looking back with a raised eyebrow, "I somehow doubt that the wild Goombas launch organized attacks on your village," he joked.

Kooth gave a polite little laugh. "No, these moves have proven mostly unnecessary until today." That seemed to remind her to start trying to dust off her shell as she walked, though she could never quite reach all the way back.

"Ah, so I see you're not an adventurer," sighed Goombalan. His eyes seemed to shine a little dimmer after hearing that.

"No, not at all, sir," Kooth replied politely, "I have yet to leave Floral Plateau."

Mario and Goombalan stopped dead in their tracks. "What?" they both shouted.

"Is something the matter?"

"How have you not wanted to see the world?" gasped Goombalan.

"The interest has never struck me," replied Kooth, "I am sorry if that has somehow offended you."

Mario shook his head. "No, it's not offensive or anything, just," he paused for a moment, "surprising. How old are you anyways?"

"23, sir."

"What!"

"You haven't left this plateau in 23 years?" cried Goombalan. "Have a sense of adventure!"

Kooth glared at her two companions and put her hands on her hips. "You seem to think that there's something wrong with Floral Plateau, do you not?" she snapped, "I will have you know that I care deeply for this place and will dedicate my life to my village!"

"Woah, calm down!" Mario gently insisted, holding his hands up as if being threatened. "I totally get being dedicated to your home more than you can imagine. We're just travelers and you not being one ever is kinda shocking."

"A little unacceptable, too," muttered Goombalan. Mario gave him a subtle kick.

Kooth took a deep breath. "I understand. My apologies," she said with a bow. After an awkward pause, the trio began walking once again and Kooth spoke up. "Mr. Mario, you said that you two are travelers, what brings you to Floral Plateau? I try to keep track of what is attracting outsiders." Judging by her fuming defense of the plateau, Mario wasn't quite sure if she did that to find ways to attract tourists or keep them out.

"It's a long story," Mario said with a sigh.

"And only growing," added Goombalan gleefully.

"I am willing to listen to it in its entirety," assured Kooth, "Tell me of what drove you from the outside world."

Mario resisted the urge to roll his eyes at that last comment and launched into his story. He wasn't as detailed as he was when recounting his birthday to Goombalan, choosing to only describe Peach and Bowser in detail rather than go through each of his friends. He did make sure to give special attention to the rip in the sky and the encounter with Fava, as well as their search for Toad, feeling those were the most important parts. "So," he finished, "I've been through quite a lot."

Kooth looked up at the rip in the sky, now sitting near the center of the sky above them as would become normal for around 2:00pm. "That is quite unbelievable," she said in awe. "By which I mean your story is quite exciting, rather than false. For whatever reason, I find you quite trustworthy." She knit her brow for a moment and rubbed her chin. "Could you please describe your friend, Toad?"

"Uh sure," said Mario, "He's a pretty average Toad. He has red spots and a blue vest."

"I believe I have seen this individual," Kooth said nonchalantly.

"Okay, that's co- wait, hold on! What?" he shouted, "Toad's here?"

"Yes sir. I tried to confront the Monty Moles earlier today, though they drove me away from their bridge. I believe your friend was watching from a distance."

"He didn't try to help?" asked Goombalan.

"Toad doesn't like to fight unless he's got _at least_ a few other people on his side," commented Mario. "Do you have any idea where he went?"

"I would assume that he traveled to Flora Outpost," Kooth replied.

"Where?"

"My village," said Kooth impatiently, "where we shall be in a few minutes."

* * *

><p>A beautiful, wooden archway stretched over the group's head as they entered the village. "Gentlemen," said Kooth, "Welcome to Flora Outpost."<p>

Flora Outpost was a beautiful little village. It was larger than Railway Village, containing about 12 buildings, 10 of them houses, one shop, and the town hall. The paths were narrow, paved with cobblestone, and bordered by green grass and colorful flowers. In the center of town there was a large, stone fountain in the shape of a tulip, with water coming out of its petals. Everything in town surrounded the fountain and faced it. The town hall was directly to the North, the Shop was to the South, they came from the West, and there was a path leading out to the East.

"This is a nice little place," commented Mario. _Maybe not nice enough to live in for your whole life though_, he thought.

"I am required to report the incident with the Monty Moles to our mayor," Kooth said, pointing towards the two story stone building sitting to the North. It was decorated with green vines and red roses that spiraled around various parts of the building.

Goombalan whistled, "Well color me impressed, that's a fancy piece of architecture! Let's head on in then!"

"Er, perhaps you two may not want to meet the mayor," Kooth said quickly.

"Nonsense!" insisted Goombalan. "I'm sure he'll be glad to hear of our success!"

"I've never _not_ met with the mayor when traveling to villages like this," commented Mario. "Wow, I'm pretty sure that's not even an exaggeration," he realized, "That's kind of ridiculous." Lost in his own thoughts, Mario strolled towards town hall, oblivious to any objections Kooth attempted to make.

As he pushed open the door Mario's nose was assaulted with the scent of dozens of types of flowers. The source was immediately visible as he walked in: lining the orange walls were countless flowerpots, each stuffed with several types of flowers.

"These guys have no sense of subtlety!" cried Mario, his hands flying to his nose.

"Tell me about it," droned a Koopa sitting at the desk. He looked to be about 21 years old, had a scarlet shell, and wore a loose, orange hoodie with the hood up. "I mean we get it, there's flowers!" he grumbled. Right at that moment, Kooth strolled through the door and the desk Koopa's attitude changed dramatically. "Yipes!" he yelped, yanking the hood down from his head, revealing messy brown hair. He sat up straight and gave a bright smile. "Kooth!" he cried happily, though without hiding his nerves. "I was totally just letting these two gentlemen know how great our village is!"

"Fantastic, Kooperry," said Kooth quickly, "I must speak with the mayor about urgent matters."

"Er yeah, of course!" fumbled Kooperry, "H-head on in, he's free!" Kooth gave him a small bow and walked through a set of stone doors to Kooperry's right. "Gee," he sighed once the door had shut again. "You only meet a girl that professional once in your life, ya' know?" he said to no one in particular, resting his chin in his hands.

"Uh, sure," replied Mario, raising his eyebrow.

"It makes her so mysterious!" continued the Koopa, "You'd love to get to know someone so mysterious, ya' know?"

"I guess," said Goombalan awkwardly.

"Uh, we kinda gotta talk to the mayor too," said Mario, deciding that he'd seen enough swooning, "We're part of those 'urgent matters' she was talking about."

"Wait, you know her then?" Mario and Goombalan didn't bother replying and quickly went into the mayor's office.

The mayor's office was similarly decorated to the lobby and still contained an overwhelming odor of flowers. Behind a large hickory desk stood a Koopa that looked like standard fare for mayors judging by Mario's past experiences. His skin was wrinkled and orange and his shell was brown and leathery. His eyes looked closed, though Mario could see just a sliver of eye peeking at him, but his eyes weren't the most prominent feature of his face; that would have to be his long, gray beard that stretched to his stomach. Add to that a cane and a hunchback and he was undoubtedly an old man.

"Ah, these must be the travelers you were telling me about!" he boomed. Unlike his appearance, the mayor's voice was strong and youthful. It was deep and seemed to shake the room as he spoke.

"Yes sir, Mr. Koopara," replied Kooth, "This is Mario and Goombalan," she said, motioning to them.

"Nice to meet you two," the mayor replied before swinging his narrow gaze back to Kooth, "And need I remind you to refer to me as_Mayor, _not Mister? Or are you still bitter about your crushing defeat last November?"

Kooth visibly flinched at the mention of defeat. "Yes, mayor," she said, trying to keep anger out of her voice.

"Defeat?" asked Goombalan, either oblivious or apathetic to the Koopa girl's tightly clenched fists. "Kooth, did you run for mayor?"

Mayor Koopara chuckled loudly. "Did she not tell you? She was the first candidate to run against me in thirty years! Needless to say, such an inexperienced girl was no match for me."

"Indeed," muttered Kooth shakily. "But I am at least grateful that you have allowed me this chance to serve our community by fighting the moles," she said, regaining her formal tone, but still not able to look the mayor in the eye.

"Yeah, we're glad we could help too," said Mario, attempting to cut the tension in the room.

"You are most certainly appreciated," said Koopara. His tone was noticeably more pleasant towards Mario and Goombalan than towards Kooth. "In fact, perhaps you could help us think of a plan to stop the-" He was cut off by a loud rumbling that seemed to shake the entire village.

"Moles! It's the moles!" blared Kooperry, bursting into the room and waving his arms madly. Kooth was out the door before anyone else could react.

* * *

><p>The scene outside was pandemonium. The fountain lay in pieces on the ground, destroyed by a bulldozer. That particular bulldozer was just one of many mole-filled bulldozers charging through town, ripping up the flower beds and crashing through the town gates.<p>

"This cannot be," Kooth was fuming as Mario and Goombalan exited the town hall. "What are they doing here so early?" she shouted.

"This is all because you three decided to screw with Molecorp!" roared a Monty Mole, jumping off of a bulldozer as it rolled by.

"Which guy is this?" asked Mario, looking confusedly at the foe.

"Morton Mole, we met earlier, fatty," spat Morton, pulling out a rock. "I'm the head of this here operation, so I s'pose it's my duty to stop you guys."

"And just how do you plan on doing that?" snapped Goombalan.

"Some good old-fashioned brawling and then I'll tie you up like the last guy," explained Morton, pegging the rock at Mario.

"Last guy?" asked Mario, clutching his stomach after impact.

"Some punk that tried to mess with us a few hours ago. Well, after _her." _He sent Kooth an obligatory glare. "We've made sure he can't mess with us until the mine is set up and done." He pointed back to a passing dozer containing a roped up figure with red spots and a blue vest.

"Toad!" screamed Mario, waving a hand rapidly in the air.

The captive caught sight of the plumber and tried (without success) to stand. He simply stared in silent shock for so long that he was nearly out of sight. Mario feared he'd found the wrong guy until the captive finally shouted back: "Maaaaaaaaaaaario!"

"That's Toad!" Mario shouted quickly. He sprung off the porch and started running towards the bulldozers, but a rock caught him in the back of the knee and sent him tumbling to the ground.

"You're ignoring me!" snapped Morton.

"You're really not that important right now," sighed Mario, pulling out his hammer.

"I'm business, that's important! Or do you not think capitalism is important, Mr. Red?" replied Morton, dashing at Mario.

"Oh shaddap." Mario bashed him over the head with the hammer.

Goombalan ran up and tried to headbonk Morton who just rolled out of the way. "Quit stalling, fiend!"

"Fiend?" grumbled the mole, "How am I the fiend?" He hit Goombalan with a rock as he spoke.

"Perhaps you should take a look at the destruction you've already caused in my village!" Kooth finally spoke up. Her eyes blazed with fire as she ran towards Morton. Rather than immediately tucking into her shell, she transitioned into a cartwheel and _then_ pulled into her shell, letting it spin on its side like a wheel. She crashed into Morton at an insane speed. He was sent head over heels as Kooth spun right through him and came to a stop at a safe distance.

"Kooth, that was fantastic!" cheered Mario as he jumped onto Morton (who was sprawled out on the ground after the last attack).

"I've never seen that sort of skill from a Koopa!" commended Goombalan.

"I'll say," groaned Morton, getting up and backing away from the trio. "Listen punks, I may not be able to defeat you for now, but you're too late to stop us from setting up the mine!"

Mario, Goombalan, and Kooth looked around and found that all the bulldozers were long gone. "Oh my!" gasped Kooth. "It seems we were a tad too enthralled with our melee."

"Exactly," replied Morton with a smug grin. "Now then, assuming you make it on down to the mine, I'll have amassed the power necessary to destroy you for ten to fifteen business days!" Without warning, he took off running out of Flora Outpost and across the plateau. "See ya', blubber boy!"

"That scoundrel!" growled Kooth.

"Blubber boy?" roared Mario. Mario and Kooth bounded down the path in pursuit of Morton Mole, anger clouding their minds.

"Hold it, kids!" called Goombalan. His companions stopped in their tracks.

Mario turned back to face the Goomba. "Goombalan, we gotta get this guy! He has Toad!" he ordered.

"He's already far gone," argued Goombalan. "If we had a chance of stopping them before they start their mine then I'd agree with you wholeheartedly, but at this point it's wiser to go prepared."

"That is quite logical," agreed Kooth, turning away from the bulldozer tracks with a tiny sigh. "I shall direct you to the shop."

* * *

><p>The group decided on a plethora of mushrooms and syrups. Goombalan also suggested the stockpile a few fire flowers to deal with the crowds of Monty Moles. Mario picked up three.<p>

"That's all we can get," Mario announced, "I'll be broke after this, so unless either of you brought a wallet then this is it."

"I-I totally forgot!" gasped Goombalan. "What kind of hero forgets his darn wallet!" He muttered a few choice curses to himself as Mario turned to Kooth.

"Anything?"

"It resides somewhere within my house, but we have not the time to look."

"That's a shame," said the Koopa shopkeeper, holding up Mario's rewards card. "You're up to 24 points. One more and you'll officially enter the rewards tiers." He scratched his chin for a moment in thought. "You could pillage the moles, they seem loaded."

"You think we should steal?" questioned Goombalan. "How vile!"

"Not necessarily _steal_," defended the shopkeeper, "just pick up any cash they leave behind. I've heard legends of plenty of heroes who do that!"

"Certainly no hero I've ever met," grumbled Goombalan, collecting the items from the counter.

"About that," Mario began awkwardly.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Goombalan cried overdramatically. "I won't stand for this, we need a truly heroic leader and I guess that's gonna have to be me!"

"Well it's take the money or die from a lack of items later on," said the shopkeeper, juggling a couple of super mushrooms.

"This guy runs a hard bargain," muttered Mario.

"Mr. Mario, with all due respect, I believe Mr. Goombalan is having a bit of a crisis here, so I do not believe it is the time for puns," said Kooth.

Goombalan's brow was furrowed as he weighed the options in his head. "I guess times have changed. Do whatever you find necessary, theif."

"Goombalan, just don't," grumbled Mario, pocketing the last of the items and walking towards the exit.

* * *

><p>The party followed the muddy dozer tracks as they made their way eastward across the plateau. Goombalan had taken to checking the various bushes around them for coins or items. He, of course, argued passionately that "these were possessions long lost, not just laying around the workplace" and that he was taking the moral high-ground. He probably was, but Mario really didn't care about losing the argument, he was just happy to get some coins back.<p>

About a mile or so into their trek, a shout came from one of the bushes. "Guys, get ready for a battle!" Goombalan came scrambling out of the brush with seven Goombas in hot pursuit.

"Mama mia! This is going to take forever!  
>"Not necessarily, sir," corrected Kooth. She ran towards the Goombas and performed a cartwheel, just as she had against Morton, and tore through all seven Goombas, defeating each and every one of them in a single move. She soon came to a stop and calmly stood and dusted off her pants.<p>

Mario and Goombalan both stared, mouths agape. "You mean to tell me that your already powerful move from earlier can do _that_?" gasped Goombalan.

"Yes sir. Is there something wrong?"

"Wrong? Kooth you're a powerhouse!" declared Goombalan, running over and giving her a pat on the back.

Kooth tried to hide a grin. "Thank you, but it really is not anything special. The move is just my father's invention. He calls it _Swift Shell_."

"Well that man sounds like one heck of an adventurer to come up with that!" said Goombalan.

"Yes sir. He and my mother are frequent travelers."

"I knew it! I knew you had some adventuring blood in ya' as soon as you started fighting with us!" Goombalan cheered, breaking out into a little happy dance.

"Yeah, that's pretty cool," Mario added lamely. "Did your dad teach you anything else?"

"He taught me how to ricochet my shell off of objects in midair," she offered like it was nothing.

"Goodness!"

"Kooth, I hope you don't know any other cool moves," chuckled Mario, "I think you'll make Goombalan faint."

* * *

><p>After walking a little farther, they came upon a brook, likely a small bit of the river that broke off. It wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that the bulldozer tracks were on both sides of this seemingly uncrossable stream.<p>

"How are we supposed to get across here?" groaned Mario. They surveyed the area. There were six support beams for what likely used to be a bridge, three on each side. Near the other edge of the brook there was a floating, blue switch, just barely above the water.

Kooth walked to the very edge of the stream and looked back and forth between the shore and the switch. "It would appear that that gap is too broad for me to cross with my shell," she said with a sigh.

Goombalan, meanwhile, was staring at the switch with a grin on his face. "That's clever," he said to no one in particular.

"What is?" Mario asked.

"The mole's made it so only they could access this bridge," he said, not looking away from the brook. "That switch is clearly meant to be activated by one of their rocks, so we're left up a creek without a paddle- er... stuck on land without a bridge. Clearly they didn't realize we have a secret weapon!" As he finished, he turned towards Kooth with a confident shine in his eyes.

"Sir, I insist that that gap is too large for me to cross!" repeated Kooth, shamefully looking down at her feet.

"Anything else in mind?" asked Mario, clearly at a blank.

"You kids are such amateurs!" Goombalan chided, shaking his head. "The switch isn't the only thing in the water!"

Mario loudly face-palmed. "Of course! Nice catch there, Goombalan!"

"I am still unsure of how I am supposed to cross," said Kooth, looking quizzically at the brook.

"The posts!" cried Mario and Goombalan.

"You believe I can ricochet that well?" asked Kooth, backing away from the river hesitantly.

"I believe it's our only choice if we wanna get to the moles."

Kooth nodded and took another step back. "Then I shall try my best." She ran as fast as she could towards the brook and tucked into her shell at the last moment. The cyan shell glided smoothly off the riverbank and crossed the air, miraculously not losing any altitude. She collided with the near-left post with a satisfying _thump_, bounced to the center-right post, then the far-left, and finally slammed into the blue switch and fell onto the river bank.

Upon being struck, the switch began violently shaking and slowly descended into the water. After a couple of seconds the water between the posts began bubbling rapidly. A steel platform slowly emerged from the depths of the river until it formed a safe bridge for Mario and Goombalan to cross. "I love it when a plan comes together!" cheered Goombalan, skipping happily across the bridge.

As they made their way away from the bridge they saw several bulldozers in the distance that appeared to be moving down a steep slope. As the got closer they saw that the bulldozers had been at the area where Glassy River split and had already descended into their mine.

"Hold on, they dammed up the river already?" gasped Mario, "How could they possibly build that so fast?"

"Well," began Goombalan, pulling out his tattle log, "It says here that Monty Moles are unparalleled in their digging and building skills. Some folks even say that their building skills border on supernatural."

"Yeah, pushing half a river back onto itself in a matter of minutes has gotta be some sort of magic," snorted Mario.

"Unfortunately," sighed Kooth.

They now stood next to the dam and looked down at the muddy cave entrance where half of the river had flown only minutes ago. "So this is Glassy Cave, eh?" said Goombalan, "Back in the day I heard legends of people getting trapped in there and drowning. I never really expected to see it like this."

"Nobody should ever be able to see in there," said Kooth angrily.

"Well, we don't have a choice," said Mario sternly as he hopped down to the mouth of the cave. "The moles are on the move and they've got Toad, so let'sa go!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: Next time we'll be heading into the main dungeon of the chapter! Let me know what you think of the story so far in a review. Constructive criticism is welcome. See you guys next time!<strong>


	7. Of Mountains and Molehills: Part 3

**Author's Notes: Who doesn't own Mario? Me, that's who. No lawsuits please and enjoy the story!**

* * *

><p>Despite being named after the river that ran through it, Glassy Cave managed to physically live up to its name. What water remained since the dam was built had settled into countless little mirror-like pools scattered about the tunnel and reflective shards of blue topaz jutted out of various sections of cave wall. The whole tunnel was lit by strange aquatic mushrooms that let out a relaxing blue glow. The entire cave had a mystical feeling to it.<p>

"While I still stand against the idea of anyone ever being in here, I admit it is quite beautiful," said Kooth.

"I think it would make a pretty sweet tourist attraction," commented Mario.

Kooth let out an irritated sigh. "I ought to remind you that all plant-life on Floral Plateau is supported by the underground portion of Glassy River."

"Right," muttered Mario, hoping the blue glow obscure his embarrassed face.

They walked into a wide, circular chamber that was already filled with several minecarts piled high with blue topaz.

"That's a whole lotta crystals," said Goombalan. "What do the moles even want them for?"

"Well, I am sure you are aware that Molecorp is an energy corporation, correct?" began Kooth as they came to the end of the chamber and entered another slim tunnel.

"Yeah," replied Goombalan. Mario didn't even bother to respond and just listened.

"From what I have heard, they are experimenting on a new variety of fuel based on topaz powder," she explained.

Mario and Goombalan just walked in silence for a moment. "Okay, maybe I'm just missing something here," Mario finally said, "but that makes absolutely no sense."

"None at all," replied a frank voice. Mario, Goombalan, and Kooth looked down to see the heads of two Monty Moles sticking out of the ground.

"Ah!" yelped the trio, jumping back in shock.

The moles dug their ways out of the ground. "Somehow I'm not surprised that these bozos got passed the bridge," sighed the first one.

"I can handle these guys!" the second one said confidently. "You go back and warn the others!"

"You sure?" asked the first. "I've been hearing that these guys managed to beat Morton."

"Nah, Morton's a pushover anyways!" insisted the second. "Go!" The mole nodded and ran deeper into the tunnel and the remaining mole turned to the trio who had recovered from the shock. "I'll give you guys one last chance to scram before I beat you senseless!" he declared.

"You're fighting us for a hopeless source of fuel!" snapped Goombalan.

"I'm part of Molecorp's brawn, not its brains. Don't try that on me," said the Monty Mole. He scraped his foot on the ground a couple of times before charging straight at Goombalan. The Goomba was knocked right onto his back, dazing him slightly. Mario tried to retaliate with his hammer, but the mole dug his way underground and avoided the blow.

Mario started gazing wildly around at the ground, trying to spot where the foe would pop up. "They didn't do this last time!" he cried.

"That's because the bridge was metal, kid!" replied Goombalan, standing back up. Without warning, the mole popped out of the ground right under the Goomba, knocking back onto his back, though not doing any damage. Mario jumped towards the mole, but once again he dove underground and away from danger.

"I guess we're playing whack-a-mole then," groaned Mario, gripping his hammer tightly. The mole eventually popped up right behind Goombalan, but Mario immediately crashed his hammer down on his head. Dazed, the mole slipped backwards and fell into a pool of water.

"Nice hit," commented Goombalan. "But you're lucky that guy's taller than me. If you had hit me then we'd have some problems!"

"Like you do with me?" cried the mole, treading water at the top of the pool. He chucked a rock right and Goombalan and crawled out of the water. Goombalan dodged the rock which hit Kooth instead for minor damage. Kooth just gave the mole a cold glare and shot her shell at him. The mole began to dig his way back underground, but Kooth was fast enough to hit his flailing legs before he completely disappeared.

Mario suddenly felt a rumbling beneath his feet. "Oh no you don't!" he shouted, jumping right before the mole popped out of the ground. He landed back on him and gave the mole two good stomps. Frustrated, the mole retaliated with a rock that hit Mario in the cheek and attempted to dive back into the ground, but Kooth managed to get to him at the last moment and he tumbled out of his hole and onto his back.

"Ouch," he moaned weakly, clutching his gut. "You won't get us all!" he insisted.

"We'll see!" cheered Mario confidently. Without a second look, he strode down deeper into the tunnel, Goombalan and Kooth quickly following.

"You seem so confident, Mr. Mario," said Kooth with a mild bit of surprise added to her mostly monotone voice. "You do realize that the other Monty Mole has warned the rest of his coworkers, correct? We shall definitely see an increase in security."

"I guess," replied Mario. "But if it's just moles then we don't have much of a problem."

"Yeah! No need to doubt our skills, kid!" added Goombalan.

"I just think that we may need to proceed with a little bit of caution in mind," argued Kooth.

"Nah, we got this," insisted Goombalan. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"Uh, how about _me_? BOMB!" cried a figure at their feet. The bob-omb exploded with a grin on its face, sending the trio flying backwards.

"I recommend _never_ asking that again," scolded Kooth.

"Okay, can somebody tell me where they got bob-ombs?" shouted Mario in a mix of shock and anger.

"My money's on bulldozer storage," replied Goombalan. "But I suppose you wanna hear their stats. Bob-ombs have 1 HP, 4 attack, and 0 defense. Not only do they attack by exploding, but they explode when killed, either after two seconds or upon contact with something. What fools! How do you expect to win a fight if you just blow yourself up?"

The sound of marching echoed down the tunnel. The trio could faintly see the shapes of ten bob-ombs advancing steadily towards them. "Time to take out their extra security!" exclaimed Mario, running towards them with his hammer held high in the air.

"Hold it!" screeched Goombalan panickedly.

Mario froze mid-stride, hammer still held in the air. "What's wrong?"

"Even if you can knock one of them away, you're likely to blow them all up!" warned Goombalan. "I suggest you get back here unless you have a death wish.

Mario scrambled back without any other prompting. "Okay then, what's your plan?"

Goombalan froze, eyes widened. "I didn't actually have one," he breathed, suddenly realizing how dire the situation was.

"Perhaps I could use Swift Shell?" suggested Kooth. Her tone was definitely the calmest of the three, though she had a small twinkle in her eye that seemed to say "told ya so".

"No, they would blow up before you could get away," sighed Goombalan. The bob-ombs were now about thirty feet away. The heroes began slowly backing away from the advancing threats.

"Resistance is futile, BAM!" shouted one of the bombs. Mario, Goombalan, and Kooth all backed away faster.

"Just attacking these guys normally has always worked for me," said Mario nervously. "Should we just take the risk?"

"Unless it's worked for a tightly packed group this large then no," replied Goombalan. Mario didn't offer a comment so Goombalan continued. "Our only option is to somehow attack them from a distance."

"You certainly planned ahead well, Mr. Goombalan," Kooth immediately replied with a small smile.

"Well thanks, Ko- wait hold on! How?"

"You were the one who insisted on purchasing fire flowers," replied Kooth.

Goombalan's face errupted into a huge grin. "Kooth, your memory has just saved us all! Mario, can't you see the adventuring blood in her?"

"Yes, fantastic," muttered Mario distractedly. He was already digging through the travel pack. After a few seconds his hand emerged from the pack clutching an orange flower which he quickly placed on the ground.

"He's got a fire flower, KA-POW!" screamed a bob-omb. The squad of ten flew into a panic and all tried to turn around while bumping into their frenzied comrades. By the time they began running away, the flower was already spewing hot balls of fire and an ember quickly drifted onto one of the bob-ombs.

"Uh-oh, BANG!" gulped the bob-omb. After two seconds he exploded, causing a huge chain reaction that defeated the entire squad in a deafening bang.

The trio looked around to see where they had backed up to. The only landmark in sight was a chubby figure laying on the ground.

"Hey guys," groaned the defeated mole. "Maybe I underestimated you."

* * *

><p>Far deeper into the cave, two Monty Moles walked deeper into what they now called their mine. "Hey, I got a question," began Morris Mole.<p>

"Shoot," replied Martin Mole.

"You heard about what we might be doing to this place?" asked Morris.

"Probably not, considering I have no idea what you're talking about."

"It's just a rumor," qualified Morris, "but all the plants 'round here might depend on the river running through this cave to survive."

"I doubt it," said Martin confidently. "You'd think corporate would take that into account right? It's not really our job to question it."

"I guess you're right," said Morris. "I just would feel bad hurting the people in that village, they've done nothing wrong."

"You're thinking like those intruders," warned Martin. "But the more I think about it, the more I see your point. How about this: they're our enemies until we finish the job or find out that we're actually causing harm, sound good?"

Morris gave him a thumbs-up. "Yup, thanks Martin!"

Suddenly another mole ran up to them. "Guys, those intruders are getting through faster than we expected!"

"Crap!" blurted Martin. "Morris, you head back and help with the mining so we can finish up faster, I'll help fight!"

"You got it!" said Morris. And with that, Martin and the other mole ran down to face Mario and co. Morris, meanwhile, was making his way deeper into the main tunnel of the mine, passing by various side tunnels dug out by bulldozers. After a little while he came upon a large pool of water, probably about twice as deep as he was tall. Normally such a pool wouldn't have been noteworthy to him, but something about it was giving him a strange feeling, one that was slowly causing him to panic. Just as he was about to run past it and push it to the back of his mind, a tall, slender figure rose out of the water.

"You," it said coldly.

"M-me?" breathed Morris. It was all he could say in his panicked state.

"You're part of the group responsible for creating the dam," it continued. "For that you must pay!"

"What?" stuttered Morris. The figure did not respond though. Instead it held out its hands and fired a torrent of pressurized water at him. All Morris could do was scream before he was hit. The figure simply stared at him, a vengeful grin on its face, before slowly sinking into the water.

* * *

><p>Mario and co. arrived in a large chamber within the cave. The moles had set up industrial lighting in the chamber so the full scope of the 200 foot diameter cave could be seen; however they completely drowned out the light of the mushrooms, revealing the plain brown color of the walls and ground. Several relatively small tunnels split off from the chamber and a huge metal archway stood at the other end of the chamber, leading to what was presumably the main path through the mine. That tunnel was about thirty feet long and had another archway at the other end.<p>

Mario approached the archway and saw a small slot for a key card on the front of the archway as well as sensors running along the inside. "Hm, I wonder what's stopping us from just going on without a key," he thought aloud. Cautiously, he stepped past the arch.

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

A loud siren began to blare. Mario immediately rushed back into the chamber. After about a second or so a huge spiked pillar came crashing down on the space between the arches.

"I am surprised they managed to install such a sophisticated death trap this fast," commented Kooth, seemingly unfazed by it.

"W-well regardless, I get the feeling we'll be able to find a key card somewhere around here," said Mario, still a little shaken by the spike trap. They began searching the various tunnels at random, hoping to luckily stumble upon a key card. Most of the tunnels were empty though other than a few stray coins laying around (which only Mario picked up, Goombalan refused). One tunnel seemed promising until they heard the roar of several bulldozers and decided it wasn't worth it. Finally, they approached a tunnel that sloped upwards.

"Weird, they've never dug up before," commented Goombalan.

"Then something tells me we're in luck," said Mario, sounding confident though not really feeling it. The tunnel quickly led to a small, empty chamber that didn't appear to noteworthy. That is, until they walked onto the very center of the room and a large trapdoor opened beneath them.

"Mama-miAAAAAAAAA!"

They fell into a small circular pit that contained nothing but two cracked rocks. The pit was about twenty feet deep, far to deep for Mario to jump out of.

"Mikey, they actually fell for it!" called a voice from above.

Mikey Mole appeared at the edge of the pit with another mole. "Nice! You can take back my doubts about you, Magnus, I didn't think they'd be this dumb!"

"Oh when I get my hands on them," grumbled Goombalan, trailing off into a few select curse words.

"Your anger will not aid us, sir," said Kooth, placing a hand on his shoulder (or whatever the Goomba equivalent of a shoulder is).

"You're right," replied Goombalan. "We all gotta think rationally about this. Hm, well my first thought is what happens when they fall in here? Assuming somehow they can't dig their way out, they need their own method out."

Mario whipped out his hammer. "I shoulda known these rocks were suspicious!" He smashed both of the suspicious rocks laying too perfectly in the pit. Once the rubble cleared away they found that both rocks had concealed blue switches. Mario smacked one blue switch then the other, but nothing happened. "Kooth, you're gonna need to hit one while I hit the other," he quickly concluded. Instinct was kicking in at this point. Kooth nodded obediently and backed up while Mario raised his hammer above his head. Kooth began to run and Mario began to swing and both switches were struck at practically the exact same moment. With a small rumble, the floor beneath them began to rise.

In the chamber above, Magnus and Mikey Mole had backed away from the pit and were rolling on their backs, laughing about their foes' stupidity. Mikey suddenly paused. "Yo Magnus, do you hear something?"

"Kinda sounds like an elevator," commented Magnus. The two paused for a moment, trying to guess what was going on. Finally they saw a hint of red rise out of the pit and they turned to each other in horror.

"Thanks for the lift!" shouted Mario, jumping off of the platform as it became level with the rest of the chamber. He landed right on Mikey's head causing Magnus to chuck a rock with a panicked yelp, knocking Mario onto the ground before he could get in a second hit.

Kooth came running in and slammed into Magnus before he could attack again, but Mikey quickly got up and rammed into her, knocking the Koopa helplessly on her back. Goombalan came in and headbonked Mikey, narrowly missing a rock thrown by Magnus. He was able to get a second hit in before Magnus got a second rock out and hit him.

Goombalan began panting heavily. "Mario, could you toss me a mushroom? I've been taking way to much damage today!"

Mario gave him a thumbs-up and started digging through the travel pack. He tossed a red fungus over to Goombalan and looked up just in time to see a rock slam into his nose. Angrily, Mario slammed his hammer down onto Magnus's head. Both moles looked to each other and nodded. The two dove underground before anyone could get another hit in.

"Guys, don't drag this out longer than it needs to!" groaned Mario.

"Okay!" Magnus popped up right below Mario, knocking his legs out from under him. Magnus hit Mario in the back of the head with a rock and prepared to do it again, but Goombalan crashed down on him with a headbonk, getting in one hit before Mikey popped out right under Magnus, knocking Magnus out of the way, and rolled to the side.

"Nice move there, broworker!" cheered Magnus, hopping to his feet. Kooth ran up and slammed into his stomach, sending him tumbling back to the ground. "I hope you got some more tricks, Mikey, I'm finished!" he cried, rolling over to the wall and settling on his back.

Mario, Goombalan, and Kooth all turned to face Mikey Mole. "Well crud," he sighed, charging right at Mario. The plumber sidestepped the mole and let Goombalan headbonk him twice. "That's it, I'm outta here!" Mikey cried, attempting to escape from the chamber and go back to the main mine. Kooth chased after him with her shell and knocked him to the ground, defeated.

"Alright you two, hand over your key cards!" demanded Mario, brandishing his hammer threateningly.

"We don't get those, plumbnerd!" replied Magnus. "We just dig under that trap! You'd have to beat up a bulldozer operator for one of those!"

Mario looked warily to his partners. "Let's keep exploring," he said sternly, walking towards the far tunnel.

"Ohhoho! He's scared of the bulldozers!" laughed Mikey Mole. "You realize that you'll have to stop them if you wanna stop us, right?" Mario just ignored him and walked into the tunnel.

"Sir, you do realize that he is correct?" muttered Kooth once they were out of earshot.

"I'm hoping it won't come to that," sighed Mario. "We'll find a way to fight them once it comes to that, but for now let's just focus on getting past that death trap."

After another minute or so of walking, the trio came upon a peculiar sight for a formerly underwater cave: a ladder. All Mario could do was shrug and begin to climb it.

They emerged into the blinding golden light of the surface. The trio found that they were in some remote part of Floral Plateau with no sign of civilization. It was nearly sunset, the sun hung low over the horizon and the blue-green rip hung somewhere between the sun and the top of the sky. Mario scanned the field around him, looking for anything that could help them.

"I don't know about you guys," he finally said, pointing to an object to the west, "but that black square looks worth checking out." He strolled off, not waiting for a response. After a brief bit of walking, the group approached the object, revealing it to be a black chest.

'__This seems oddly familiar___,_' thought Mario. '__Where have I seen this before?__'

They walked up to the chest, inspecting it closely. "What's a chest doing all the way out here?" questioned Goombalan.

"Woah!" exclaimed the chest. Everyone jumped.

"Have I gone mad, or is this chest speaking to us?" asked Kooth, backing away from the chest with a bewildered look.

"Yeah I'm talking to you!" insisted the chest. "Don't talk about me like I'm not here!"

"Sorry sir."

"No worries. Listen, I need your help!" pleaded the chest.

"What do you need?" asked Mario.

"I've been trapped in the chest for a looooong time and I need somebody to get me out!" he pleaded. "If you can find a black key laying around here, that should do the trick! Please man, if you do this for me I'll give you all the treasure in this chest!"

"Of course!" said Mario. '__I know I've seen this somewhere before!___' _he thought.

"Thanks a lot dude! You must be some kinda hero! Anyways, just check the bushes around here, there's bound to be a key in one of them!" said the chest.

So the crew began searching the bushes, mainly finding coins, but after a minute or two, Goombalan found a small, black object. "I got it!"

"Sweet!" replied Mario.

"Great," added Kooth. They all returned to the chest.

Finally, just as Goombalan was putting the key in the lock, Mario remembered the four similar chests he had encountered before.

"Wait! No no no no!" he shouted, but it was too late, Goombalan had already turned the key.

"WHEE HEE HEE HEE! FOOLS!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: Oh mama-mia! Can Mario survive the cursiest curse of all curses? Eh, you'll see. Let me know what you think of the story so far in a review! Thanks for reading!<strong>


	8. Of Mountains and Molehills: Part 4

**Author's Notes: Okay yeah, I don't really need any more disclaimers. You get the point. Oh and there's a mild instance of swearing in this chapter (though I could have totally made it worse given the precautionary teen rating), but I swear it's for a good cause.**

* * *

><p>Finally, just as Goombalan was putting the key in the lock, Mario remembered the four similar chests he had encountered before.<p>

"Wait! No no no no!" he shouted, but it was too late, Goombalan had already turned the key.

"WHEE HEE HEE HEE! FOOLS!"

The world around them faded away leaving nothing but a purple void and the open chest. Two angry yellow eyes and a grin that could have come straight from a jack-o-lantern appeared before them. "Oh you really fell for it!" cackled the face. Did you really think some creepy voice in a black chest would mean anything good? Didn't your mama tell you not to trust voices in chests? Of course she did! But you're just too foolish to listen! Ha!"

All the group could do was just stare as the face rambled on. "Well you're _soooo _foolish that I'm gonna let you feel some of the misery I've felt by being stuck in that chest!" He took a deep breath.

"Buggly-wuggly-WOOOOOOO! You're cursed!"

The world flashed several times and Mario felt an uncomfortable feeling wash over his body as the curse overcame him. He looked at his partners who didn't seem to be reacting; evidently he was the only one being cursed.

"Ha!" shouted the face "This curse is absolutely awful! Oh I just want to giggle at the thought of your misery now that you have that curse!" He paused and then sighed "Well I guess it's maybe a little too bad of a curse. I should probably explain it to you to make up for it being so bad!"

Mario nodded, "Oh the horror!" he moaned, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Oh the horror indeed!" agreed the face, not noticing Mario's sarcasm. "Now your feet can turn into rollerblades! Oh it's so awful! You'll just be walking and then _BAM _rollerblades! Oh you'll be a complete outcast! People will be saying things to you like 'Go back to the 80s' or 'Go back to the 90s!' I'm not really sure when they were popular," he paused and furrowed his eyebrows for a second. "Because they _SUCK_!" he finally shouted.

He laughed wildly for a moment until he ran out of breath. "Enjoy your curse fool!"

The purple void slowly started to fade away, revealing the normal landscape.

"Well that was… weird," said Goombalan.

Suddenly, the chest shook and a Toad jumped out of it. He had purple spots and his face matched that of the one they saw in the void. He glanced around "Yes!" he cheered "I did it! I'm free! Free I tell you!" He laughed wildly with jubilation before running off into the distance.

"Quite strange," muttered Kooth, staring at the runaway Toad.

"Definitely," agreed Mario. "I've certainly never seen anybody come out of those things _after_ the curse."

"Hold on kid, you've encountered those things before?" gasped Goombalan. They began making their way back towards the ladder as they talked.

"Four times," answered Mario. "But those were supposed to be the only four in existence."

"I must add that the curse did not seem very detrimental," commented Kooth.

"They never are," replied Mario, jumping down the hole and back into the cave.

"Wait so does that mean you have more "curses" from the other chests? Maybe something that could help us?" asked Goombalan hopefully.

Mario shook his head. "They all wore off after a few months."

"Wow, so they curse you and don't even have the decency to make it permanent! How rude!" Mario couldn't quite tell if Goombalan was joking or not.

They arrived back at the large chamber and approached the archway. "Shall we continue our search for a key?" asked Kooth.

Mario shook his head, a grin spreading across his face. "We don't need a key anymore."

His partners looked at him in horror as soon as they realized what he planned on doing. "Mario, do you really think we can do this?" gasped Goombalan.

"100% sure!" said Mario confidently. In reality, it was more like 70%. After casting wary glances at each other, Goombalan and Kooth nodded and walked over to Mario. Mario placed his left hand on Goombalan's head, grabbed Kooth's hand with his right, and activated the curse. He wasn't entirely sure how he activated it, but whatever he did worked. His partners started to shrink and fold in towards Mario and wheels descended from his shoes. He took a few steps back and began skating with all his might.

'_Here's hoping that that Olympic training paid off!_' Mario thought to himself as he flew past the first archway.

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_ This was going to be close.

_ WHAM!_

Mario fell to the ground and looked back. The second arch loomed ominously behind him and he saw the faint tip of the spiked pillar returning to the ceiling. He deactivated the curse with a sigh of relief. The wheels retracted back into nothing and his partners sprang back to their normal dimensions.

"Well that was certainly an... interesting experience," said Kooth with a shudder.

"Did you guys see what was going on?" asked Mario, standing up.

"Boy did we," replied Goombalan. "From _your_ eyes."

Mario shuddered a bit. "That's just freaky."

After a moment of collective shuddering they continued into the blue tunnel ahead. "I must say," Kooth finally said. "That power did come at quite a convenient time, Mr. Mario."

"Yeah I gue- Kooth, why do you keep calling me Mr. and sir?" his tone suddenly changed to a slightly accusatory one.

Kooth looked down "I always strive to be polite," she answered shyly.

"Well I don't think we care if you're that polite, right Goombalan?" replied Mario, motioning over to the Goomba.

"Indeed!" replied Goombalan.

"But I am only informal towards my family and friends," began Kooth.

"Well aren't we your friends?" asked Mario, slightly offended. "I mean, I know we've only known each other for a few hours, but we're on a dangerous journey together! I think that can constitute at least a bit of friendship?"

"I suppose, sir," muttered Kooth. Mario and Goombalan glared at her. "Er, I mean you are right," she paused, "Mario and Goombalan." She grimaced "It just does not feel right."

Mario grinned, "Good job! You'll get used to it after a little while!"

Goombalan gave her a pat on the back (somehow) "You'll be fine kiddo! Adventuring makes a man (or woman) start to feel comfortable with the world!"

"So you are saying I will lose my formal attitude?" asked Kooth, slightly horrified.

"Somewhat," he paused as he tripped over a rock in their path "yeah."

Kooth put her head in her hands "I simply cannot allow that to happen!"

"Why are you so formal anyway?" questioned Mario.

"I was simply raised this way," said Kooth. "Father always told me I needed to be professional in order to succeed and I have followed that idea for my whole life."

"Sounds like some weird advice coming from an adventurer," muttered Goombalan.

"I'd appreciate it if you do not question my upbringing, _sir,_" snapped Kooth coldly.

"Yeah yeah," muttered Goombalan. He tried his best to understand the rationale for that sort of parenting, but immediately stopped upon imagining Goombandrew becoming more like Kooth than him.

After a few minutes of walking through empty tunnel, the group came upon an area with only a narrow strip of land to walk on, the rest of the area being flooded with water.

Mario stopped dead in his tracks, "Goombalan."

"What?" asked the Goomba.

"I'm getting that feeling again," uttered Mario.

"What feeling?" asked Goombalan.

"The one I got at the river earlier today."

"Seriously? What is up with you today?" groaned Goombalan.

"We need to get out of this area," Mario said simply.

"What?"

"Just run!" shouted Mario. They all took off, Mario in particular putting as much distance between him and the water as possible. Just as he was getting away, he could have sworn he saw a figure rise out of the water. Freaking out even more, he dashed away, quickly followed by his partners.

"Did you all see that?" asked Mario once they could no longer see the water. He was visibly shaken.

"See what, sir- rather, Mario?" asked Kooth.

"A person came out of the water!" blared Mario, he was starting to sound a little crazy.

"Mario, there was nothing there!" replied Goombalan. "Listen kid, I'm starting to worry about you! Did something happen to you that made you afraid of the water?"

"What, no!" snapped Mario, his cheeks turning bright red (though in the blue light they appeared purple). "I swear there was some sort of creature in the river and now in the cave!"

Goombalan turned to Kooth. "You're the most rational here, Kooth. There definitely wasn't anything there, right?"

Kooth cast a wide-eyed look back to the tunnel. "I saw nothing," she breathed.

"See Mar-"

"But I believe him," Kooth finished.

"You're kidding," gasped Goombalan. His posture shifted to an excited bounce and his face turned to a grin. "And how do you know this?" he asked hopefully.

"It is only a legend," began Kooth. "But every kid in Flora Outpost has been told of the spirit of Glassy River. I was never a personal believer, but perhaps she has somehow been angered," she suggested.

"Well kick me and call me sandbag, this just got interesting!" cheered Goombalan. "Mario, my boy, I'm sorry I ever doubted you!" He continued down the tunnel, skipping happily and muttering to himself.

Mario quickly caught up. "You okay there? That was a pretty big mood change."

"Think of the adventure!" replied Goombalan, whirling around. "Sure it may have just seemed that you were a bit crazy before-"

"Hey!"

"But now we have a probable reason here!" Goombalan turned around and began walking again. "Sure, stopping these moles may have been exciting before, but now we get to save a river spirit too! _This_ is the sort of thing I've been missing from my youth!"

"What was in those mushrooms we bought?" muttered Mario, watching the Goomba's ecstatic prancing.

* * *

><p>It had been a few hours since the trio had departed for the mine and the lack of word back had eventually gotten to Mayor Koopara's head. Honestly, Koopara didn't really like Kooth. He found her to a little <em>too<em> devoted, to the point where she came off as self-righteous. That being said he'd never send a kid off to her death like that. He'd expected her to simply follow them and come back with some sort of status report and then he'd think of a decent plan, but it seemed that today was different. He guessed that those strange men were egging her on. Could they seriously be considering stopping the entire mining operation? He honestly didn't know, but at the very least he planned to see if anything was going on at the mine.

"I don't really see anything, mayor-dude," said Kooperry as the mine's entrance came into sight. The young secretary had insisted he come along, which was strange considering he normally didn't seem capable of caring about anything.

"Hush now," boomed Koopara. "Perhaps we'll see a mole come out and get some information from him."

"You'd really risk that?" asked Kooperry, casting a nervous look at the entrance looming below them.

"Those moles are loudmouths," replied Koopara. "I'm sure we could get anything out of them without a fight." After that they simply stood in silence for a minute or so, watching the cave entrance. Well, it was relative silence considering the roaring river flowing past the dam. Actually, once Koopara thought about it, he realized that it was a lot louder than normal. "Does the river seem louder than normal?" he finally asked.

"Uh yeah, I guess," replied Kooperry with a shrug. He took a good stare at the river. "I think it's moving faster than normal too."

Koopara looked at the river and it certainly did seem to be gushing more violently than usual. Almost dangerously. Without warning, a small crack appeared on the face of the white dam.

"Oh damn!" yelped Kooperry.

Koopara was too shocked by this change to scold his secretary for the outburst. "Looks like Molecorp's been cutting corners," he said worriedly. "I hope everyone gets out of there soon. This conflict has no need for bloodshed."

* * *

><p>Mario and co. entered another chamber lit with electricity, though unlike the last one there didn't appear to be anything to special about it. The only two tunnels out were the one they had come from and one at the other end. The chamber was a large square and the middle third of it consisted of a slope that went about twenty feet up to where the exit was.<p>

Just as the trio was about to ascend the hill, six Monty Moles darted out of the tunnel ahead of them and stood menacingly atop the hill. "End of the line!" shouted Martin Mole. He was the only one of the six that Mario could recognize.

"Just let us through, we've already defeated six of you once and we'll do it again!" shouted Mario confidently. He shook his fist at the moles for added effect.

"That's true," admitted Martin. "But have you faced six of us-" he paused for dramatic effect, "with _bombs_?" Each mole grabbed darted into the tunnel and returned with bob-ombs in each hand.

Goombalan loudly gulped. "This is not good," he breathed.

"You should really be thankful," taunted another mole. "We're letting you guys end with a _bang_!" He chucked a bob-omb right at the group. It slammed right into Mario, but didn't explode immediately, rather, the damage it took from the throw caused it to light its fuse and blow up two seconds later, sending the heroes flying back into the wall.

"You fools are going to commit homicide!" shouted Kooth, prying herself from the wall.

"Woah woah woah!" called another mole. "We don't wanna kill ya! Killing's wrong! We're just gonna beat you up and keep you from messing with us until the job is done!"

"That's comforting," Mario muttered sarcastically.

"I think we've given them good warning," Martin said to the others.

"Agreed," replied another.

"FIRE!" the moles shouted, all chucking bombs at once. Mario, Goombalan, and Kooth all dove in separate directions. Mario and Goombalan managed to miss the explosions, but Kooth was not so lucky.

"I cannot survive such an assault for much longer!" she cried, pulling herself behind a rock.

Mario dodged an incoming bomb then tossed her a mushroom. "Goombalan!" he cried, running up to the Goomba. "I'm running blank on ideas, got any plans?"

"There's no way we can win by just letting them attack us," grunted Goombalan, scurrying away from another explosion. "And they seem to be getting an endless supply from that tunnel. We gotta take them out somehow." He paused for a moment, gathered his strength, and began to charge up the hill, screaming heroically as he did.

"Nope!" chirped Martin, lobbing a bob-omb right at Goombalan's face. He made it about halfway up the hill by the time he was blown off the hill and send flying back to Mario.

"Okay, we need a new plan," he groaned. "And one that doesn't involve me charging up that hill again, that really irritated my back." Mario gave him a sympathetic look, a look that may prove to be deadly, for when he looked back up, a bob-omb was heading straight for them.

"Mama-mia!" he screamed, holding up his hammer instinctively. The bob-omb bounced off of the head of the hammer, fell several feet away and exploded upon contact with the ground, just barely far enough to not harm Mario or Goombalan. The two looked at each other, wide grins creeping across their faces.

Mario suddenly jumped up, brandishing his hammer. "Okay you two, do what you can to survive, I gotta put my old baseball skills to use!" One of the moles immediately chucked a bob-omb right at him, as if challenging him (though in reality none of the moles could hear what they were saying over the explosions). Mario swung his hammer like a bat, sending the bob-omb flying straight back to the mole.

All six moles froze for a moment and sent each other horrified looks. "Boys, we've hit a snag!" declared one of the moles.

"Just be careful!" shouted another. "I'm sure that was a fluke anyways." Immediately, they all restarted their bomb throwing.

Mario chuckled lightly to himself. "I'll show you a fluke!" He hit another bob-omb, hitting a different mole this time.

He was then faced with two bombs at once. He decided to hit one of them and then get the heck out of the way of the other, diving with style. He landed near Kooth who had another bomb coming towards her. Mario dove dramatically in front of her and hit the bomb back, defeating the mole who had thrown it.

"Stop!" he cried as another bob-omb was tossed towards him. "Hammer ti-"

"Mario, I am fairly certain that nobody wants to hear that pun," called Kooth. Mario simply hit the bomb with a sigh, it didn't quite make it up the hill, so nobody was hurt.

Goombalan, who had taken another hit, called out to his comrades. "Okay, this is working, but I'm not sure if we can still survive at this rate. Kooth, perhaps you could get up in time with Swift Shell," he suggested.

"Perhaps," replied Kooth warily. She quickly rolled out of the way of another explosion. "That will take a lot of energy though. I'm not sure if I can do that."

Mario put his hammer down for a moment and dug through the travel pack. "Here!" he said, tossing her a small jar of yellow syrup.

Kooth quickly downed the liquid and immediately seemed more confident in her movement. "Thank you," she said. She attempted to bow, but had to dodge a bob-omb instead. "I shall do my best to get up there." She waited for Mario to hit another bomb (which soared too high) and then started running towards the hill. By the time she had done a cartwheel and pulled into her shell, several moles had noticed her, but the move was too quick for any of the moles to react quickly enough to hit her. She shot right through the mole on the far right, knocking him off balance. She gave him a tiny shove, sending him tumbling down the hill. While Mario took care of the remaining falling bombs, Goombalan ran over and headbonked the mole twice, defeating him.

"That's two moles defeated, three moles damaged, and one mole at full health!" he announced.

Kooth, meanwhile, was preparing for another Swift Shell at the top of the hill. Once again, the moles were too slow to react and she managed to knock the remaining four off the hill and down to Mario and Goombalan. "Did I do well?" she asked, sliding gracefully down the hill.

"Definitely!" cheered Mario. He smacked one of the moles as he came down the hill, defeating him. Goombalan pounced onto another as he came to a stop at the bottom. Only Martin Mole remained.

"Oh jeez," he gasped to himself. Before he could be attacked, he dug into the ground and popped up at the top of the hill. "This really didn't go as expected," he sighed.

"I think we need to call in Morton," moaned one of the moles.

"Totally!" agreed Martin. He took a deep breath and unleashed a deafening whistle.

Mario snorted loudly. "Morton? We've handled that guy twice already!" At the very moment he finished speaking, the tunnel began to rumble behind them. As the rumbling became louder it was joined by another sound: the sound of a diesel engine.

"I don't like the sound of that," breathed Goombalan, growing pale.

Right as they whirled around a bulldozer burst into the chamber, piloted by Morton Mole. "Feeling powerful _now _tubby?" he cackled. Mario tried his best to look tough while backing away in terror. "I even brought your little friend along so I can keep my prisoners tied up together!" he taunted, leaning to the side so Mario could see Toad tied up in the back of the dozer.

"Mario, help!" cried Toad, frantically straining at his ropes.

"Toad!" Mario cried, immediately stepping forward and raising his hammer.

"Mario, is your plan really to fight this thing?" gasped Kooth, her voice quivering away from its usual monotone. "You do realize that we are facing a several-ton metallic beast, correct?"

"Er," muttered Mario, backing up again. "How about we go with plan B?"

"Plan B?" asked Goombalan.

"Run!" screeched Mario. The trio immediately took off up the hill knocking Marin out of the way. The bulldozer followed at a pace unexpectedly fast for a several-ton metallic beast.

"You better not hurt Mario!" squealed Toad, flailing his feet around in an effort to get out.

"Hurt him?" snorted Morton. "I'm gonna flatten him!" he roared. "With a justifiable level of force," he added after a moment.

"Quickly!" shouted Mario. "Grab my hands!"

"The curse?" called Goombalan. He ran up to a point where Mario could place his hand on his head. The transformation took place flawlessly once again, but by the end, the bulldozer was only a few feet away from the inline plumber.

"Come'ere plumber!" roared Morton.

"Mama-mia! Mama-mia! Mama-mia!" screamed Mario, beginning to skate away from the bulldozer as fast as he could. After several minutes of frantic work it finally seemed like he was going to get away.

And then he got to the end of the tunnel.

He quickly deactivated the curse. "No. No. No!" he shouted.

"Now's the real end of the line!" shouted Morton triumphantly.

"Mario!" shouted Toad. "You can do this! I know you can! You've tackled worse things than a bulldozer driven by a dumb mole!" The mole promptly slapped him. "Ouch! Anyways, it may be somewhat tough, but I know you can do it! Just put your mind and your heart to it and you'll succeed!"

"Will you shut up?" snapped Morton, slapping him again. He turned back to Mario and co. "You're going down, you pests!"

"We got this, guys," said Goombalan nervously.

"Let us teach these moles a lesson!" added Kooth.

Mario gritted his teeth and gripped his hammer tightly. "This is for you, Toad!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: Aw yeah, we got a boss battle next time! Hopefully I'll get that up soon. Thanks for reading!<strong>


	9. Of Mountains and Molehills: Part 5

**Author's Notes: Sorry that this chapter took longer than the others. Blame exams and the holidays. But, I'm back and I've brought a boss battle for you! The theme for this boss is Unfounded Revenge from Mother 3.**

* * *

><p>Mario, Goombalan, and Kooth stood with their backs to the wall as Morton Mole revved the bulldozer's engine threateningly.<p>

Mario took a deep breath and stepped away from the wall, looking up at the bulldozer. "Alright Goombalan, give us some stats on this guy."

Goombalan frantically flipped through his tattle log. "Obviously this thing is a bulldozer, and it's piloted by the one and only Morton Mole! It has 20 HP, 1 defense, and has three attacks. Morton can throw rocks for 2 damage, he can throw bob-ombs for 4 damage, and ram us with the bulldozer for a whopping 5 damage!" He scanned the page for another second or so, his brow furrowed. "Okay, this doesn't make sense, but apparently we can do damage to the bulldozer by attacking Morton himself- strange, I know- and he doesn't have any defense."

"Sounds simple enough!" declared Mario, jumping onto the hood of the bulldozer. He held his hammer above his head and shouted "You're finished, Morton!"

"I don't think so!" chucked Morton, reaching behind him and pulling Toad in front of him.

"Mario no!" squealed Toad, trying to move his roped up hands over his face.

Mario lowered his hammer with a sigh. "Not that easy, eh?"

Morton quickly threw Toad back to the back and pulled out a bob-omb. "Not at all!" he roared, chucking it at Mario's face. The blast sent him flying back to the wall while somehow doing nothing to the bulldozer.

"I suppose we should attack the bulldozer directly," mused Kooth. She tucked into her shell and slammed into the bulldozer.

"I guess so," muttered Goombalan with a shrug. He jumped as high as the tunnel would let him and crashed down onto the hood of the bulldozer (he wasn't getting his head anywhere near the pointy edges of the bucket) and hit it twice.

"Is that all you got?" taunted Morton, tossing a rock into Goombalan's forehead. "You didn't even scratch her!"

Goombalan ran back to the wall while Kooth got a second hit in. "Mario, he's right!" he cried. "I can't do enough damage to hurt it. I'm useless as an adventurer!"

Mario gave him a quick pat on the head. "Don't worry about it. Here-" he handed the travel pack to Goombalan, "-manage the items and try to formulate a plan."

"You got it!" replied Goombalan, trying to sound upbeat.

Mario rushed in with his hammer, but was met by a rock to the chest. Morton quickly turned the bulldozer to face him and started to advance.

"Here's a plan: jump out of the way!" shouted Goombalan. Mario rolled his eyes before jumping over the plow and onto the hood. He started repeatedly whacking the hood with his hammer, much to Morton's horror.

"Bombs away!" growled Morton after the fifth hit. He chucked a bomb right at Mario, sending him flying back to Goombalan. The Goomba silently laid a mushroom on the plumber's nose.

"Thanks," grunted Mario, quickly ingesting the shroom. "How many more do we have left?" he asked.

"Three more, let's be careful," Goombalan replied gravely.

"Gentlemen, some help, please!" called Kooth. Mario looked over to see Morton wildly rotating the bulldozer in attempts to smack Kooth with the machine's bucket.

Goombalan began digging through the travel pack. "Get over here Kooth, I have an idea!" The Koopa scurried towards her partners and Morton turned towards the group.

"Guess I'll just ram you all!" shouted Morton with a wicked grin.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Goombalan cried dramatically as he threw a flower onto the ground. The fire flower quickly bloomed and aimed its petals towards the bulldozer.

"Woah, watch what you're doin' there!" Morton cried nervously. The flower started spewing fireballs right at him, dealing damage both to the bulldozer and directly to Morton. Toad manged to stay safe from his position cowering behind the driver's seat.

Mario ran up and slammed his hammer onto the machine's bucket and Kooth quickly followed up with a hit from her shell. Mario got one more hit in with the hammer before Morton smacked them with the bucket and sent them flying back to the wall.

"I believe he's down to 5 HP!" cheered Goombalan. "We've got him on the ropes!"

"And I've got you right where I want you!" sneered Morton, revving the engine. He began to charge straight towards the back wall.

"He's not gonna stop!" screamed Goombalan.

"Everybody dive to the side!" ordered Mario. The trio dove to the rightward wall at the last second, narrowly avoiding the bulldozer as it slammed into the back wall creating a large crack down the middle.

Mario hopped up and gave the machine another smack. "You'll be done in no time!" he taunted.

"Oh, you wish!" chuckled Morton. He popped open the hood of the bulldozer and pulled out an ultra mushroom from below his seat. With a wicked laugh he tossed the mushroom into the engine. The whole machine glowed brightly for a moment as the item's effect kicked in.

"I-it's fully healed," breathed Goombalan.

"No way," gasped Mario quietly.

"Yes way!" laughed Morton. "We can keep fighting 'til you keel over, because this baby's good to go!"

"We're gonna need to defeat this guy soon," Mario called to his partners.

"It's the defense that's making him last so long," replied Goombalan. "If only we could get to Morton without him using your friend as a shield."

Mario gave him a quick pat on the back. "Good plan, go for it!" he said quickly. "Kooth and I can distract him!" With that, he dashed over to the bulldozer, hammer in tow, and helped Kooth try to attack it as Morton sent a barrage of projectiles at them.

"Me?" Goombalan called nervously. He looked up at the large defensive foe he was faced with. For a few brief moments he began to doubt his own capabilities, particularly as he began to sneak along the wall and his back cried out in protest from the trials of that day. But as he edged around the bulldozer he saw both the passion that Mario and Kooth fought with and the terror in the eyes of Toad and he shook the doubts from his mind. This was his calling.

Toad nearly cried out with joy as Goombalan mounted the back of the bulldozer, but the Goomba quickly shushed him. Casting a final cautionary look up at Morton he bent down and began sawing at the ropes with his fangs. After a few quick saws, the bindings dropped from Toad's body and he stood with a triumphant grin. Goombalan gave him a friendly smile back and jumped back to the front of the bulldozer.

"What's he at?" he asked as he landed next to Mario.

"I believe we have shaved off about a quarter of his health," answered Kooth.

"How'd it go?" Mario quitetly muttered to Goombalan.

"See for yourself."

"Hey!" squealed a voice after a few seconds.

Morton angrily turned around in his seat. "Will you shu-!" His mouth slammed shut then dropped open again once he saw that Toad was now standing behind him, completely free.

"You're a classless jerk!" snapped Toad, kicking Morton in the face. "Just so you know." He quickly scurried across the top of the bulldozer and hopped over to Mario and co.

Mario held out a gloved had for Toad to shake. "Good to have you back, buddy!" he said with a warm smile. His gaze suddenly turned stone cold as he looked up at Morton Mole, brandishing his hammer. "Looks like your meat shield's gone!" he taunted. "You're finished!"

"I don't think so!" barked Morton Mole. Mario noticed a hint of fear quivering in the mole's tone. He yanked on a few switches, causing the bulldozer's bucket to rise and form a barrier between him and Mario. With a hammy cackle, Morton set the bulldozer in motion, chugging towards the crew.

Mario grabbed Toad by the vest and jumped out of harm's way while Kooth jumped to the other side of the cave. Goombalan, meanwhile, squeezed through the space between the bucket and the bulldozer's hood. Mario quickly hopped up from the left, leaving Toad safely on the ground, and Kooth jumped from the right.

Seeing the three foes standing before him, Morton slammed on the breaks with a shocked gasp. Mario, Kooth, and Goombalan tumbled backward, banging their heads on the raised bucket. "Wow, I can't believe that worked," Morton muttered quietly. "Er, I mean, you've fallen into my trap, fools!"

Mario groggily stood up, grabbing his sore head. "We're not done yet!" he blared, the words coming out slurred as he shook the dizziness from his mind.

"Let's be real," began Morton, pulling out a stone, "You're stuck between a rock and a hard place!" He chucked the rock straight into Mario's gut. He then pulled out a bob-omb, snickering to himself. "I'll make sure this battle ends with a bang!" He tossed it before anyone was in good enough shape to retaliate. The explosion sent the three flying back into the bucket with greater force.

Toad looked on in horror as Morton took advantage of the party's dazed state. "Mario!" he shouted, though his encouragement failed to help. He looked around wildly for anything that could help. He caught sight of a brown object laying underneath the bulldozer. After carefully checking that Morton wasn't about to run him over, Toad made a grab for the object, revealing it to be the dropped travel pack. Not wasting any time, Toad dug through the bag and pulled out the final fire flower. He placed the flower right next to the bulldozer and quickly ran out of the way.

Morton pulled out another rock to throw at the dazed party when the embers started flying. He looked up and blanched as the fireballs descended upon him and the bulldozer. The fire narrowly missed Mario, Goombalan, and Kooth and it went on for long enough that they were able to regain their senses by the time Morton's frying had finished. Morton reached for another rock, having dropped the other one in the fire.

"Oh no you don't!" cried Mario, diving into the cockpit with Morton. He stood on the steering wheel and began repeatedly stomping on Morton's face, each hit getting out a bit of Mario's frustration from the recent beat down. He stomped on the mole's face five times before he was shoved back onto the hood.

Morton quickly lowered the machine's plow and hopped onto the hood, clutching a green object. He threw open the hood, sending Mario, Goombalan, and Kooth rolling back onto the ground. He held up the ultra mushroom with a wicked grin. "I can keep doing this all day!" he declared.

Mario whipped out his hammer with desperation in his eyes. "Not again!" he cried, quickly losing steam. It was clear he wouldn't be able to make it to Morton on time, so he simply swung his hammer down onto the hood cover. It slammed back down onto its normal place, bonking Morton onto the nose as it fell. The Monty Mole was knocked backwards into his seat and the ultra mushroom tumbled helplessly onto the hood and rolled off the front of the vehicle. Mario scooped up the mushroom and held it in the air triumphantly.

"What are you doing?" barked Morton. "That's my last ultra shroom!" he admitted in a panic.

"What am I doing?" asked Mario in mock confusion. "I'm chowing down like the fatty I am!" With that smug line he tossed the ultra mushroom into his mouth and practically swallowed it whole. Instantly revitalized, the plumber jumped onto the hood and swung his hammer down onto Morton's head.

His partners quickly joined him on the hood. Goombalan stomped on the mole's face and was prepared to go in for the finishing move when Kooth shouted "wait!" Mario and Goombalan looked back at her expectantly. The koopa jumped off of the bulldozer and backed up to the wall. "May I have the honor of finishing this fiend off?"

Without a word, Mario and Goombalan joined her at the wall, Toad quickly following with a jealous look. "I wanted revenge too," he grumbled.

Kooth took a deep breath and began sprinting towards the bulldozer. Morton started backing the machine up, but he had no chance of escaping. "This is what you get for assaulting my village!" she declared. At the last moment, Kooth pulled into her shell before slamming into the front of the bulldozer.

The entire machine began to violently shake. "This ain't good," groaned Morton.

"It's gonna blow!" squealed Toad. Kooth shot a panicked look to her party and scurried over to the wall. With a deafening roar and a blinding flash the bulldozer exploded. When the light and smoke had cleared there was nothing left but a large scorch mark where Morton Mole was laying.

Mario felt a hot tingling sensation on top of his head. "My hat!" he cried, ripping the cap from his head, throwing it to the ground and stomping the flames from it.

"Well that was certainly dramatic," breathed Kooth, staring at the charred mole in front of them. It was hard to tell if she was traumatized or thrilled judging by the very slight change in tone.

Goombalan cautiously waddled up to the fallen mole. "I think he's dead," he announced grimly after a moment. That comment was met with a rock to the face.

"I'm not dead!" coughed Morton, hopping to his feet. "I'm just down 50,000 coins on this operation!"

"The operation's over," Mario snapped.

"You think so?" sneered Morton. "I've still got another nine bulldozers ready to flatten you!" He tore off down the tunnel screaming "bring in the bulldozers! Crush them! Crush them all!"

"I say we get out of here!" decided Toad, starting to jog down the tunnel.

"Agreed!" said the rest of the party, following him. They were only able to continue on for a minute before the smell of diesel returned.

"We're not gonna make it!" cried Toad, beginning to breathe quickly.

A first bulldozer came into view and the party just stared nervously. Then a second one came in, quickly followed by a fourth. By the fifth they began to run back to the end of the cave, not waiting to see all nine bulldozer's coming for them.

"What's the plan?" shouted Goombalan, quickly checking over his shoulder. "We're running out of running space!"

"We'll do what we can," is all Mario could say.

They reached the end of the tunnel and all slowly turned to face their foes. The line of bulldozers was only fifty feet away and advancing fast. The crew nervously took on half-hearted battle stances, but the bulldozers didn't seem ready to fight. "They're not gonna stop!" gasped Goombalan.

"Jump out of the way!" ordered Mario. Everyone dove to the side just as the first bulldozer slammed into the back wall. The wall completely shattered and the bulldozer plummeted off the newly formed cliff. The second bulldozer hadn't seen what had happened until it was too late and also soared off the cliff. The same thing happened to the third, fourth, fifth, and so on.

After a moment of shocked silence, Kooth spoke up. "Correct me if I am wrong, but have all ten bulldozers been defeated?"

"Yeah, but show some spirit!" chirped Goombalan. "We just defeated ten bulldozers!" he whooped, hopping up and down.

"We're safe!" added Toad, his terrified expression lightening to one of joy.

Mario stepped cautiously to the cliff and looked out. The hole made by the bulldozer revealed an underground lake, about a mile across. The surface was almost perfectly reflective, save for the blue glow emanating from the lake's center. Below them floated the nine bulldozers along with ten moles holding onto their machines desperately. "Curse you, fatty and friends!" came the exhausted gasp of Morton Mole.

Mario turned away from the cliff. "Let's get going guys!"

"Are you just going to let those guys die?" questioned Goombalan.

"Eh, they can dig their way out of there," replied Mario with a shrug. They walked down the tunnel for a few seconds before the panicked feeling Mario had felt throughout that day returned, stronger than ever. He felt like his legs turned into jelly as he walked and soon he collapsed to the ground. He began breathing heavily, trying to get a grip on his mind.

"M-mister Mario, h-have you any idea what is h-happening?" cried Kooth, freezing in her tracks. Her tone made it clear that she was feeling at least some of the panic that Mario was feeling.

"This is crazy guys," muttered Goombalan. It was clear from his quivering boots that he didn't quite believe what he was saying. "There's nothing wrong."

Then they heard the sound of rushing water.

"The dam," breathed Mario.

"We're all gonna die!" Toad shrieked at the top of his lungs. Water began seeping into the end of the tunnel, already having made its way to the back of the mine and up the hill in the chamber prior. After a moment it was no longer seeping, it was gushing. Water burst into the tunnel and overcame Mario, Goombalan, Kooth, and Toad within seconds and dragged them into the underground lake.

The impact of the water knocked the breath out of Mario, which was unfortunate because there wasn't a source of air around him. '__This is it,__' he thought, '__After all I've been through, I'm dying here at the beginning of a new journey. Out of all the things I've fought, water will be the death of me!__' But suddenly, right as he was about to take a breath and let water into his lungs, a bubble formed around him, giving him a much-needed air source.

"Thank the stars," he muttered to himself. "But now what am I supposed to do?" He watched the water around him, seeing his partners, Toad, and several Moles trapped in bubbles as well. It appeared that the chamber had filled almost completely with water and otherwise was filtering out of an unseen area.

He sat there in the bubble for a while, a sleepy feeling overcoming him. Just as his eyelids closed shut however, he felt himself move. Not just him actually, but the entire body of water he was in began spinning around the middle of the chamber. The water ended up spinning so fast that it was flung away from the center and up to the ceiling, creating a large column of air in the center, stretching from the ground to the ceiling.

"Mama-mia!" he cried, noticing that his bubble was now moving against the current, towards the center. Once he reached the edge of the column, the bubble popped and he was sent flying into the center. He was quickly joined by Goombalan and Kooth.

They looked around at the environment in bewilderment. The stood upon a circular crystal that glowed blue, lighting up the entire chamber. Around them swirled the huge, and now fairly clear, underground lake that formed a vortex that went about 100 feet up.

A figure glided out of the water and landed before them. Mario recalled with horror that this was the same figure he had seen in the river and the mine earlier. He felt the figure's power wash over him, but this time he faced it without the crippling terror, only a reasonable amount of fear. The figure was tall and skinny and looking at its face, Mario could tell it was a she. Her skin was a watery blue and her long hair and flowing dress were the same deep shade of indigo. Her eyes were closed at first, but once she opened them, Mario could see that they were solid green.

After a moment of glaring, she spoke to the group. Her voice was cold and womanly. "You have made a grave mistake." All the party could do was give her shocked, confused looks, so she continued on. "I have carefully observed you three and your power. It is clear that you three are by far the most powerful intruders here, so I have determined that you lead this mining operation."

"What?" cried Mario. "We're not part of this; you're making a huge mistake!"

"Of course you would say that," snapped the woman. Her tone made each word come out like daggers. "As the main leader of this operation, I'm sure you have the most to lose here."

"I'm not involved," insisted Mario sternly.

"Just curious," piped Goombalan. "What exactly are we losing here?" His tone was a mix of fear and excited curiosity.

"Perhaps the others may get off easier, but as the leaders, you will receive the gravest of punishments." The figure closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep, furious breath. "For defiling my river, you shall die!"

**Author's Notes: ****Oh man, who would have seen a second boss fight coming in chapter 1? Let me know what you guys thought of this boss and the fact that another one is coming up next. I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who's shown support through favorites, follows, and reviews! Your support and feedback really keeps me motivated when writing this.**


End file.
